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RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN CHINA 



RECENT DEVELOPMENTS 
IN CHINA 



CLARK UNIVERSITY ADDRESSES 

NOVEMBER, 1912 



EDITED BY 

GEORGE Hi BLAKESLEE 

Professor of History, Clark University 



NEW TORE 

G. E. STECHERT AND COMPANY 
1913 






^ 



Copyright 
Clark University 



COMPOSED AND PRINTED AT THE 

WAVERLY PRESS 
By the Williams & Wilkins Compant 
Baltimore, U. S. A. 

M4y 18 1914 

©Ci,A371953 



J 



CONTENTS 

Introduction. Dr. George H. Blakeslee vii 

^- I. The Means of Unifying China. Charles W. Elliot, LL.D., 

President Emeritus of Harvard University 1 

II. The Effect of the Revolution Upon the Relations 
Between China and the United States. Ching-Chun 
Wang, Ph.D., Assistant-Director of the Peking-Mukden 
Railway, Delegate from the Republic of China to the re- 
cent International Congress of Chambers of Commerce . . 19 
III. The New Holy Alliance for China. Albert Bushnell Hart, 

LL.D., Professor of Government in Harvard University. . 37 
V IV. A Plea for Fair Play and the Recognition of the Chinese 
Republic. Major Louis Livingston Seaman, M.D., LL.B., 

F.R.G.S., President of the China Society of America 50 

I V. The Genesis op the Republican Revolution in China 
FROM A South China Standpoint. John Stuart Thom- 
son, sometime Agent at Hong Kong, China, of the Pacific 
Mail and Toyo Kisen Kaisha Trans-Pacific Steamship 

Companies 66 

VI. The Western Influence in China. Edward W. Capen, 
Ph.D., Hartford School of Missions; recently on special 

sociological and missionary research in the Far East 93 

v^II. China's Loan Negotiations. Hon. Willard Straight, Rep- 
resentative of the American Banking Group 119 

VIII. The Relation of the Returned Students to the Chinese 
Revolution. Y. S. Tsao, Secretary of the Chinese Stu- 

y/ dents' Alliance in America 162 

IX. American and Japanese Diplomacy in China. Masujiro 
Honda, D.Litt., Tokyo, Japan; recently Editor of The 

Oriental Review 176 

X. Some of China's Physical Problems. Charles K. Edmunds, 
Ph.D., President of the Canton Christian College and Ob- 
server in Charge of the Magnetic Survey of China under 
the Auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. . . 181 
XI. The Westernizing op Chinese Medical Practice. Charles 
W. Young, M.D., Professor of Bacteriology and Pathology, 

Union Medical College, Peking 199 

XII. The Opium Abolition Question. J. O. P. Bland, formerly 
of the Imperial Maritime Customs, Secretary of the Shang- 
hai Municipality and Times Correspondent in China 223 

XIII. America's Business Opportunity in China. B. Atwood 

Robinson 237 

XIV. The Industrial Future of Shansi Province. Rev. Paul 

L. Corbin of Shansi Province 256 

V 

/ 



VI 



CONTENTS 



XV. Sir Robert Hart and His Life Work in China. Edward B. 
Drew, A.M., Commissioner of Chinese Imperial Maritime 

Customs, retired 272 

^,-^XVI. A Personal Estimate op the Character op the Late 
Empress Dowager, Tze-Hsi. Katharine A. Carl, Painter 

of the Portrait of the Late Empress Dowager 305 

XVII. The Manchit Conquest op China. F. W. Williams, Assist- 
ant Professor of Modern Oriental History, Yale University 319 
XVIII. Some Experiences at the Siege op Nanking During the 
Revolution. C. Voonping Yui, M.D., of the Chinese 

Red Cross Society 335 

XIX. The Effect of the Revolution Upon the Educational 
System op China. P. W. Kuo, M.A., Ex-President of 

Chinese Students' Alliance in America 345 

*XX. Moral and Spiritual Elements in the Chinese Revolu- 
tion AND IN THE PRESENT OuTLooK. Rev. Charles L. 

Storrs, Shaowu, China, Foochow Mission 359 

XXI. Organization and Recent Work of the Catholic Missions 
IN China. Rev. Father Leo Desmet, for Thirteen Years 

a Missionary in Mongolia 378 

XXII. Some Recent Developments op Christian Education in 
China. John Franklin Goucher, LL.D., President Emer- 
itus of Goucher College; President of Board of Governors, 
University of Chengtu; Trustee, University of Peking 388 



INTRODUCTION 

The Pacific is challenging the supremacy of the Atlantic. 
Half a century ago Baron von Humboldt and our own keen- 
sighted statesman, William E. Seward, both prophesied the 
eventful triumph of this greatest of all oceans; and today it is 
claimed that the center of the world's trade and commerce, 
which in the past has moved from the Tigris-Euphrates 
Valley to the Mediterranean, and then from the Mediter- 
ranean to the Atlantic, bids fair, ^^in the life time of those 
now children to shift once more westward to the Pacific." 
As Ex-president Roosevelt expressed it, not many years ago, 
''The Pacific Era destined to be the greatest of all, and to 
bring the whole human race at last into one great comity of 
nations, is just at the dawn." Whether the Pacific will actu- 
ally surpass the Atlantic as a center of human interest and 
business activity may well be doubted, but that it will very 
soon share with the Atlantic the unquestioned supremacy 
which the latter has so long enjoyed seems reasonably certain. 

Already the world's political center of gravity has shifted 
to the Pacific. The changes which are upsetting the long- 
established equilibrium of the nations, which are overturn- 
ing the present balance of power, are taking place primarily 
in the lands washed by that ocean. It has already, in the 
past two decades, given birth to one new world power, Japan, 
which in the last few years has most profoundly changed the 
aspect of international politics, and whose alliance with Great 
Britain is today the controlling political fact in Asia cer- 
tainly, and possibly in Europe as well. It is this alliance, 
according to some critics of international politics, which has 
led to the realignment of the great military states in Europe 
itself. After Japan there comes China, soon to be a second 
new world power and destined still further to disturb the 
world's present international balance. 

The population and the resources of the Pacific, which will 
determine the eventful importance of the ocean, compare 



VUl INTRODUCTION 

favorably with, and in some instances surpass those of the 
Atlantic. In climate, fertility of soil and ability to produce 
large quantities of the world's staples, there is not very 
much difference between them. In population, the Chinese 
and the Japanese alone outnumber the inhabitants of 
Europe, while the recent success of Japan in proving itself 
superior to one of Europe's military powers in a kind of 
competition which Europe has voluntarily chosen as the 
supreme test of international ability, shows the humor of 
regarding these Asiatic peoples as racial inferiors. It is in 
the supply of the great natural resources, however, coal and 
iron, that the Pacific has the especial advantage of the 
Atlantic. According to Mr. Gifford Pinchot, Mr. Andrew 
Carnegie, and Professor Tornebohm of Sweden, the work- 
able deposits of coal and iron in both the United States and 
in Europe, provided the existing increase in the rate of con- 
sumption continues, will be used up before the end of the 
present century. Whether this gloomy prophesy is ac- 
cepted as accurate or not, it seems evident that when the 
coal and iron of the Atlantic lands are exhausted, China 
alone will have an abundance of these raw materials which 
have been well called ''the vital essence of our civilization." 

A rapid development in the Pacific of European communi- 
ties, largely Anglo-Saxon, will soon still further strengthen 
this ocean. Most of the lands of the temperate zone through- 
out the world capable of supporting great virile populations, 
but which are now relatively undeveloped, are situated on 
the Pacific. Western Canada with its thousands of miles of 
coast and its virgin grain fields; our own far Western states, 
Washington, Oregon and California, probably unsurpassed 
in climate and agricultural possibilities; New Zealand and 
Australia, a continent in extent, will all in the near future 
in power and in vigor of race balance many of the countries 
of the Atlantic. 

Even a slight consideration of these possibilities of the 
Pacific must give some idea of the increasingly important 
influence which its leading countries will exert upon the 
nations of the West. This influence, already potent, is 
bound to increase rapidly in the future, especially that of 



INTRODUCTION IX 

China, the greatest potential factor in the dawning Pacific 
Era. The strength of our own western coast as well as 
that of the British Pacific possessions may be measured with 
reasonable certainty; while both the power as well as the 
limitations of Japan are now understood; but the possibili- 
ties of China, when thoroughly awakened and organized 
on a modern basis, are almost beyond computation. The 
Chinese, who make up a fourth of the world's population, 
are one of the ablest known races, physically, mentally 
and morally. Their physical endurance surpasses that of 
Europeans and Americans, according to the testimony of 
foreign physicians; their mentahty is proven by the stand- 
ing of their students in Western schools; and their moral 
stamina is shown by their earnestness and their partial 
success at least in destroying the opium traffic. They have 
already left the ruts of their centuries-old civilization and 
begun to adopt the new customs and institutions of the 
West and of Japan; this is especially noticeable in their 
new system of scientific education. The revolution itself, 
considering the forces opposing it and the immensity of the 
country, has been carried out, notwithstanding the recent 
reaction, with a success which has surprised the closest 
students of Chinese conditions. 

The outcome of the struggle to establish a stable, modern, 
somewhat democratic government in China is of great im- 
portance to the United States, for in the future these two 
countries are bound to exert a strong influence each upon 
the other, since they will remain, probably forever, the 
two most populous nations upon the opposite sides of the 
Pacific. We are now even closer to China than we generally 
realize. Worcester is today nearer in thought — by telegraph 
and cable — to the capital of the Republic of China than it 
was to Boston in the days of Washington; it is today nearer 
to Peking physically — it takes less time to travel there — 
than it was to Pittsburgh when our national government 
was founded. 

Americans have already most profoundly effected condi- 
tions in China. The leaders of the present revolution have 
largely followed American ideas and ideals, and have taken 



X INTRODUCTION 

as their heroes our own national heroes of the past. Ameri- 
can schools have laid much of the basis upon which the 
new China has been built. With only a little exaggeration — 
for the important part played by Japan must not be for- 
gotten — one might write a history of the upheaval of the 
past two or three years under the title ''The American 
Revolution in China." 

When the Pacific Era shall have become an accomplished 
fact, the influence of the orient as a whole, and of China in 
particular, will be increasingly great. Even at present the 
majority of the vital diplomatic questions which have been 
before the American Government during the past decade, 
have been issues concerning the Pacific. But the Far East 
is bound to affect our country not merely in its diplomacy, 
but in its trade, its industry, its education and its modes of 
thought. The revolution in China deserves our most 
earnest study, not only because, if successful, this re-crea- 
tion of one of the most numerous and the most able peoples 
of the globe will take its place in history as a world event 
of lasting importance, but also because it will exert a 
marked influence upon our own country as a neighboring 
Pacific power. 

To consider these great changes now taking place, some 
thirty experts came together at Clark University, November 
13-16, 1912, for a four days conference upon recent develop- 
ments in China. Some of them knew the Manchu dynasty 
in its old days, and were decorated by the Imperial Court 
for distinguished service; one came into close personal touch 
with that almost unapproachable sovereign the Empress 
Dowager. Some, as teachers and missionaries, laid the foun- 
dation upon which new China is rising; one represents the 
modern physician in the westernizing of medical practice 
in China and has himself fought the plague in Manchuria 
with the bravery and by the methods of the West. Some, as 
long-time residents of China, have seen the revolution in its 
inception, its development, its outbreak; they have known 
its leaders and in some cases have taught them as students. 
Still others are authorities on the compUcated international 
situation of China; some of whom have themselves taken 



INTRODUCTION XI 

leading parts in one of the most important events of the 
past couple of years, the loan negotiations. Still others are 
Chinese; some of them are students, while others have 
held important positions in the new Republic of China, 
and are living evidence of the influence of America in the 
Chinese revolution, for they themselves are graduates of 
American higher institutions of learning. 

The addresses delivered in this Conference have already 
appeared in the different numbers of the Journal of Race 
Development but, in response to many requests, the Uni- 
versity is issuing them in a single volume. While each 
address deals with a distinct topic, they have been so ar- 
ranged that together they give the history of nearly every 
aspect of the world movement now taking place across the 
Pacific. 

To the distinguished contributors the University wishes 
to express its grateful appreciation. It is their willing co- 
operation which has made possible both the conference upon 
recent developments in China and the publication of these 
addresses. 

This volume is given to the public with the earnest wish 
that its pages may make more intelligible the underlying 
causes and the general progress of the Chinese revolution, 
and may create a more sympathetic understanding of the 
gifted race which is strugghng to compress the natural 
evolution of centuries into the span of a few years, and whose 
national future, as a growing Pacific power, will be closely 
associated with our own. 

G. H. Blakeslee. 

Clark University, 
Worcester, Massachusetts, 
November SO, 1913. 



THE MEANS OF UNIFYING CHINA 

By Charles W. Eliot, LL.D., President Emeritus of Harvard 

University 

1 must tell the audience first that I am not an ''expert" 
on China. I have only spent about two months and a half 
there. The country is immense; and when I was there it 
was in a state of prodigious confusion. I did not know a 
word of Chinese. So that I bring you tonight just the obser- 
vations on China and its present condition of one American 
citizen who has had, during a somewhat long life, a good 
deal of experience in one form of administration — educational 
administration — and who has been interested all his life 
in the social and industrial conditions of the community in 
which he has lived. To have been interested many years in 
the social and industrial conditions of one's own country, if 
that be a free country, is a pretty good fitting, or preparation, 
for a cursory inspection of industrial, social, and political 
conditions in another country. That was all my prepara- 
tion for my visit to China. I should also say that I was in 
the Far East on a special errand, intrusted to me by the 
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. This was 
a strange year in which to be an envoy from a peace-promot- 
ing organization to study the conditions under which war 
breaks out or peace is maintained. I had no sooner started 
than the inexcusable attack of Italy on Tripoli took place. 
I had not been long in Ceylon before Russia invaded Persia 
with great violence; and Great Britain, Persia's neighbor on 
the south, calmly looked on. When I reached China that 
country was still in the throes of what had been a brief civil 
war, comparatively restricted in its areas, and yet a civil 

1 



2 CHARLES W. ELIOT 

war. And I had only just got home when a tremendous 
conflagration broke out in the Balkan States. This was, 
indeed, a queer year in which to be looking for the means of 
promoting peace in the civilized and semi-civilized world. 
Nevertheless, the fact that I had that special errand, and in 
the East, added very much to the interest of my journey; 
because it brought me into contact with a considerable 
number of educated Chinese and Japanese whose desires 
tended strongly towards the promotion and the mainte- 
nance of peace throughout the world, and particularly 
between the eastern and the western peoples. 

I landed at Hong Kong, and after a short stay there went 
to Canton. There I had my first interview with provisional 
republican officials, the group then in charge of the province 
of Kwang-Tung, the most turbulent province in China, and 
that province which earliest and most ardently embraced the 
cause of the Repubhc. Having a good opportunity there 
to ask what is for me a fundamental question with regard to 
any people, I asked the then governor-general, himself a 
soldier by profession, and recently in command of a division 
of the Republican army, "Will the Chinese coolie make a 
good soldier, brave, obedient, and patriotic?" (You may 
think this was a strange question for an advocate of peace; 
but such was the condition of China that it seemed to me the 
primary question.) The governor-general reflected for a 
time, and then made the following answer: "The Chinese 
coolie will fight well, provided he knows what he is fight- 
ing for, and that thing interests him." That I thought a 
very good answer; and its accuracy I afterwards heard con- 
firmed by many witnesses of the fighting which had lately 
taken place between the revolutionary and the imperial 
troops. The revolutionary armies were raw levies. An 
American woman of admirable qualities, who had already 
been twelve years in China, was at Hankow during the hard 
fighting that took place in and near that city; and she served 
for months as a Red Cross nurse in the hospitals of that 
vicinity. She told me that she always asked one question 
of the wounded who came under her care — boys most of 
them were, or very young men. She would ask the sufferer. 



THE MEANS OF UNIFYING CHINA 3 

"How long have you been in the army?" A.nd the com- 
monest answers were, "One week," "Two weeks," "Three 
weeks." Brave, raw recruits fought with desperation, with 
dauntless courage, under the most trying conditions. They 
had hardly any experienced leaders, and did not know their 
commanders; but they were ready to die for their country. 
-- That same day in Canton about two thousand Chinese 
soldiers passed me in a very narrow street, so narrow that 
my chair had to be jammed against the wall, and the men 
filed by, two and two, and no space to spare. I did not see a 
single man in that long line that had what we call a martial 
bearing. They were all fully armed, but not fully uniformed, 
and many of them had on the left arm a white band. I asked 
what these bands meant; and was told that these men all 
belonged to a society pledged to give their lives at any mo- 
ment for the country. The answer of the governor-general of 
Kwang-Tung province, so far as I can judge, was an accurate 
one. The Chinese cooUe, or peasant, or mechanic will fight 
bravely, even desperately, if he knows what object he is 
fighting for, and that object interests him. ("These men who 
made up the revolutionary armies thought they were fight- 
ing for their country, for its freedom, for the coming of a just 
government; and that prospect interested them."') Is not 
that just the spirit in which American youth are prepared 
to fight? Is not that just the spirit in which hundreds of 
thousands of young men went to our Civil War. Is not that 
just the spirit in which our Revolutionary armies were 
recruited? Our youth felt in both those epochs ready to 
die for the country, because they believed they knew what 
they were fighting for, and that thing appealed to them. 

The young generations in China today seem to be the 
legitimate successors of the earlier generations (1860-81), 
whose fighting and marching qualities were so enthusiasti- 
cally praised by such foreign observers as Swinhoe, Gordon, 
Wolseley, and Hamilton (British) and Ward (American). 
I started in China, therefore, with the conviction that the 
Chinese, though peaceable in their habits, will nevertheless 
make courageous, hardy, resolute fighters at need. There 
was a great need at the moment of a trustworthy public 



4 CHARLES W. ELIOT 

force; but the Republic was not competent to enlist and 
train that force, because it had no money. There were 
disorders in several parts of the country, because the troops 
were neither paid nor properly fed; and these suffering sol- 
diers broke out repeatedly in riots and robbings. Gradually 
the revolutionary levies were disbanded, and order was 
restored, with the help of the provincial authorities; but the 
poverty of the central government prevents it from organiz- 
ing an effective national army. 

The next question I asked of officials in China was, "What 
are the means of unifying this great country?" It has 
enormous extent. It is divided into eighteen original prov- 
inces; and the interests of those provinces are diverse in 
many respects. There is a condition in China like what 
prevailed in our thirteen colonies when the war of the Revolu- 
tion was over — very different interests in the north and the 
south, on the coast and in the interior. The provinces are 
not used to acting together; they have no common language 
except the literary; on the contrary, people on the opposite 
banks of the same river are often unable to understand each 
other. People in adjacent mountain valleys may be unable 
to understand each other; the whole people is used to pro- 
vincial government, but not to feeling the pressure of any 
national, centralized government. 

The answers to the questions, "How can this great coun- 
try be tied together, how can its people be brought to main- 
tain a strong central government, what are the means of 
unification?" came to me only slowly during my ten-week 
stay in China; and it is those answers that I propose to lay 
before you this evening. The means of unifying China? 
They are the means, with one exception, which have uni- 
fied this country, and made us one people, north,* south, 
east, and west. The first means is a common language; 
and that the American colonies had in the Revolutionary 
epoch, and have had ever since, until the recent invasion by 
millions of alien peoples not speaking English. The New 
Republic took immediate measures to remedy this great 
lack in China. I say, "took measures." They made proj- 
ects; they wrote out on paper what they would do if they 



THE MEANS OF UNIFYING CHINA 5 

had the means. They have not had the means; they have 
not had the money which the measures they proposed must 
necessarily cost. A common language is the first unifying 
means China needs to employ. It is a great undertaking. 
It must be done through public schools all over the country, 
through making education universal in its elements. There 
have been provincial schools in China, few but good; there 
have been municipal and village schools; but except during 
the last years of the Manchu Empire there has been no 
attempt at universal education; and the Manchus got 
but little way with the project they formed. Only slowly 
can this need be met. Ten, fifteen, twenty years will be 
needed in order to diffuse throughout China among the 
children and young people a common language. And yet 
that must be accomplished before the varied populations of 
China can be brought, first, to a common understanding, and 
next, to such intercommunication that they gradually be- 
come more and more like each other, and come to enjoy the 
same literature. 

The next means of unification that I inquired about is 
one which has proved to be unifying in high degree in many 
nations of the world. I mean a common system of taxation. 
You remember that the unification of Germany, which took 
place shortly after 1866, was preceded by common taxation 
methods. Duties were made the same by agreement among 
the many states into which the present German Empire 
was then divided. Posts or mails were operated by the 
same semi-public agency all over Germany. The same 
general system of taxation needs to prevail throughout a 
nation in order to unify its domestic habits and its industrial 
habits, to make them approximately alike all over the coun- 
try. The condition in China has been, and is, almost such 
as would prevail in the United States if duties were levied 
at all our state boundaries on goods in transport. China 
collects provincial taxes on goods moving by rail or other 
conveyance from province to province. An English mer- 
chant in Shanghai who has long traded in the valley of the 
river Yangtse told me that the goods he sent from Shanghai 
often paid three, four, or even five duties before they arrived 



6 CHARLES W. ELIOT 

at their destination, and that he could never tell how many 
duties or how much in toto was going to be paid on a given 
invoice. You see how difficult conomunication and trade 
are under such conditions. You see, too, how the price of 
goods will be affected by the operation of these local taxes. 
It is impossible for the same goods to be sold at the same price 
in different localities. A uniform system of taxation regu- 
lated by law is an indispensable means of unifying China. 
When I ventured to broach this doctrine to Chinese states- 
men and scholars it always aroused in their minds painful 
recollections, and apprehensions about centralized taxation 
methods for the future. There is one department in which 
uniform taxation exists for all China, namely, in the Imperial 
Maritime Customs Service. On all goods coming in by sea 
the customs, or tariff duties, are the same for all China. 
But how are they collected? By the organization estab- 
lished and carried on for many years by Sir Robert Hart, 
an admirable organization, the service perfectly performed 
with honesty and accuracy, and the receipts applied exactly 
where they should be applied in accordance with existing 
treaties. But what is the application? To pay the interest 
on bonds which represent debts China was forced by western 
powers to incur, in order to pay indemnities to western pow- 
ers, and to pay to western powers the war expenses of those 
powers in carrying on war against China. No Chinese 
official today, or at any time within a generation in China, 
can bear to think of this uniform tax for all China, the cus- 
toms. "When I spoke to three of the members of the present 
government about this tax, my reference to it was received 
with visible impatience and dislike. They simply hate to 
think that they have mortgaged their entire customs revenue 
to pay the interest on debts and reduce the principals of 
debts which China incurred in consequence of wars whiclT"^ 
western powers waged against her. They encounter another 
great difficulty in connection with this uniform tax, which 
is the product of a low, sensible tariff for revenue. That 
difficulty relates to one result of Sir Robert Hart's adminis- 
tration. In all the great services of the customs, which 
include not only the collection of the customs, but also the 



THE MEANS OF UNIFYING CHINA 7 

construction and maintenance of the lighthouses and day 
marks on the coasts and rivers of China, and many works 
of conservancy in Chinese harbors and rivers, not a single 
Chinese man has been trained to responsible administrative 
work of that sort or any similar sort during the entire exist- 
ence of the service. No Chinese has ever been appointed 
to anything above a clerkship in that service; and the con- 
sequence is now that the government cannot get from that 
service a single man, Chinese by birth, who is fit for the pub- 
lic service in similar departments. How natural that a 
Chinese statesman should hear with impatience even the 
name of the Imperial Maritime Customs Service! 

The next unifying influence for China, as, indeed, it has 
been all over the world, is the provision of the necessary 
means of intercourse for travelers, pedlars, and traders, and 
of the distribution and exchange of goods. I never before 
was in a country without roads, I had lately visited several 
parts of the Far East which are under foreign supervision, 
as, for instance, some British colonies in the East, and had 
found admirable roads in great numbers, thousands of miles 
of hard, smooth roads constructed in the British colonies^, 
for example; and suddenly I came to China and found it a 
country without made roads. The western parts of our 
own country existed for some time without anything that 
deserved the name of roads; railroads anticipated country 
stoned roads, and enabled us to communicate with new 
settlements along lines running east and west or north and 
south, and even crossing the continent. The railroad often 
preceded the settlement of the country through which it 
passed. Now China has not only no well-built common 
roads, but it possesses to this day only an insignificant 
amount of railroad lines. The number of miles of railroad 
in China now in operation does not exceed five thousand. 
Many a single state in our union has much more than that. 
I did not see a single macadamized, well-built road in China^, 
outside a British or other foreign concession, except one. 
That one ran from the winter palace in Pekin out to the sum- 
mer palace, and was sixteen miles long; it was constructed 
for the passage of the imperial household twice a year. It 



8 CHARLES W. ELIOT 

is impossible for us to imagine the close limitation of inter- 
course and traffic caused by this absence of roads. In order 
to unify China it is absolutely indispensable that an immense 
increase should be made in the mileage of railroads in that 
huge country. But what does that mean? That means 
the borrowing of thousands of millions of dollars for purposes 
of construction. 

A long time has lately been spent in endeavoring to effect 
a trifling loan of 1300,000,000 for the RepubUc. Nearly a 
year those negotiations have lasted, and still there is no end 
of them. But that amount will not take care of the govern- 
ment itself for more than eighteen months. Now China is 
going to need railroads, long and many, and will need them 
urgently; and the railroads will have to be state railroads. 
The corporation is not sufiiciently developed in China itself, 
among Chinese people, to be useful for the construction of 
the great mileage of railroads which the country needs. 
The state will have to do it. "When?" we may ask. Only 
when China has procured and set in operation a system of 
taxation that will yield a stable, sure revenue for the central 
government. That is the first thing that needs to be done 
in China. To this end laws are needed, public action of 
all sorts is needed, and foreign advisers are needed; indeed, 
they are indispensable, in order that the government may 
obtain a stable, trustworthy national income. When that 
is accomplished, then all things will be possible. 

Sir Robert Hart in 1904 devised a plan for providing the 
imperial government of that day with a stable and sufl&cient 
levenue by means of a moderate land tax. It had never 
possessed such a thing as a revenue in the modern sense. 
The imperial government exacted tribute from each of the 
provinces; and about half the tribute in money, rice, and silks 
which started from each province finally reached Pekin. 
But that tribute was for the support of the imperial house- 
hold and the Manchu clan. It was never regarded as a 
national revenue in our sense or in the sense of any modern 
government, and when the Manchus abdicated they left to 
the new government no established system of collecting a 



THE MEANS OF UNIFYING CHINA 9 

national revenue. They had never studied Sir Robert 
Hart's admirable scheme. 

There are other means of national intercourse, of intercourse 
between the widely separated parts of a great country, of 
intercourse between city and city, village and village, and 
between town and country — posts, telegraphs, and tele- 
phones. Sir Robert Hart devised and organized a system of 
posts for China, and finally made it over to the government 
long before his retirement; and that system exists today. 
It is still presided over by a foreigner, but it exists. Also 
there are a moderate number of telegraph hues, and in some 
of the cities and towns a telephone system begins to be 
developed; but all these means of intercourse are still imper- 
fect and inadequate. What can you expect in the way of 
posts in a country where there are so few railroads, no roads, 
and where most of the transportation is on the backs of 
men and animals? Here, too, you see clearly the urgent 
need of an immense expenditure by the central government 
of China, before the proper means of intercommunication 
can be had for unifying the nation. 

What I have already said implies that the great need of 
China at this moment is a strong central government. The 
government is provisional. The elections for permanent 
officers are to take place next January. Up to this moment 
there has been only a provisional organization. What is 
its nature? They call it a republic; but it is a republic in a 
sense in which we should not use the word. It is a republic 
based in the first place on a very limited suffrage. Nobody 
knows how many persons really took part in the election of 
the first assembly which met at Nanking, or in that of the 
body now sitting at Pekin; and nobody knows accurately 
the process by which those selections were made. Secret 
societies had much to do with the selections. The president 
is not a republican president in our sense. It was not pos- 
sible that he should be. He is a dictator under republican 
forms. It was necessary that it should be so. It is not to be 
helped. Not until the next elections have been held will it 
be possible for us to say of China that even the form of gov-/ 
ernment is genuinely republican. 



10 CHARLES W. ELIOT 

When I landed in China nobody knew what the quahfica- 
tions for the suffrage were to be. I asked a dozen of the 
officials I first met what they thought the qualifications for 
the suffrage should be, and found a serious division of opin- 
ion. The majority thought that the qualifications should be 
only educational. The others thought that there should be, 
as in Japan, first an educational qualification, and secondly, 
a property qualification. At the same moment no decision 
whatever had been reached as to the division of powers 
between the central government and the provincial govern- 
ments. You will remember that one of the most serious 
difficulties we encountered after the Revolutionary War was 
to determine the division of powers between the separate 
states and the federal government. We finally obtained in 
our constitution a strict definition of that division. Unfor- 
tunately we did not make so good a one as our neighbor 
Canada made not long afterward. 

A strong central government is indispensable to unifica- 
tion. The government is not strong. No government can 
be strong that has no revenue; and when I asked the then 
premier what dependable income the Republic had, he 
mentioned but one item, namely, the receipts from the 
government monopoly of salt, and he immediately added 
that the government manufacture of salt was badly con- 
ducted, that the salt was dirty and impure, containing many 
ingredients it should not contain, and that the manufacture 
would have to be reformed. That reform will take at least 
a year, and probably more; and it might be added that salt 
is one of the worst sources of revenue that has ever been 
resorted to; for it bears as heavily on the poorest as on the 
richest. 

Nevertheless, in spite of its poverty the republican gov- 
ernment is gaining strength all the time. It has repressed 
the early disorders, opened again all existing means of com- 
munication, advanced through discussion the adoption of a 
permanent constitution, reorganized the government bureaus 
at Pekin, detached the government from the ancient popular 
superstitutions, abolished the former official ceremonials, 
proclaimed religious toleration, and helped to free the people 



THE MEANS OF UNIFYING CHINA 11 

from inconvenient or injurious customs like the wearing of ^ 
the queue and the binding of girls' feet. It has made a 
large number of projects for great improvements in the pub- 
lic services and in education. It cannot carry out these 
projects until it has a revenue. Think how little the Man- 
chu Empire, which has been governing China for centuries, 
left to the Republic! No elements of a strong government 
were transmitted from the Empire to the new government; 
no army, no navy, no school system, no national system of 
taxation, no courts or police of national quality. Indeed,' 
the Manchu Empire transmitted to the Republic no govern- 
ment organization whatever. It was not a real government 
in the modern sense. It has not been for centuries. If the 
Republic, or the revolutionary movement, had done noth- 
ing else except to rid China of the Manchus, it would have 
fully justij&ed its coming into existence. The deliverance of 
China from the Manchus was a necessary step to the coming 
of China into the group of great nations. The Republic 
gives promise of organizing a strong government if it can 
have as much time as we had in our country to organize the 
government which has conducted our national affairs since 
1789. It took us thirteen years with all our experience 
of local government, with all our fighting quality, with all 
our trading experience. It took us thirteen years with a 
comparatively homogeneous people, and with a common 
language and a common reUgion. China will need at least 
as long a period of reconstruction; and the western world 
ought to stand by China with patience, forbearance, and 
hope, while she struggles with her tremendous social, in- 
dustrial, and political problems. 

But you will be thinking that all the considerations I 
have thus far adduced, and all these means of unifying 
China, have a very material look. They do indeed relate 
to language, means of transportation, and the organization 
of government agencies for carrying on the business of the 
people; and it is quite true that nations cannot be unified 
by such means alone. Nations are unified, and come to be 
strong moral units by common sentiments, feelings, and 
passions ; and the first of those sentiments is that of national- 



12 CHARLES W. ELIOT 

ity, the feeling of belonging to one group of kindred, sym- 
pathetic, united people. You may have a small nation 
animated by this sentiment, or an immense nation filled 
with the same spirit. Within the last twenty-five years 
among her widespread people with little means of communi- 
cation, China has developed in the educated class an intense 
feeling of nationality; and it has proved in the end that this 
sentiment of the educated class was capable of being com- 
municated to the uneducated in numberless millions. The 
secret societies which developed, fostered, and brought about 
the Revolution found it possible to enlist over a million men 
in the revolutionary levies. Many of these men were 
coolies, mechanics, and farmers; but they were capable of 
feeling intensely the sentiment of nationality, which had 
sprung up in the breasts of the educated few. The Chinese 
are an Oriental race, and they have now a full sense of Orien- 
tal nationalism as distinguished from Occidental. They 
have been roused by the sight of another Oriental race close 
beside them suddenly developing a tremendous force in the 
broad world — West as well as East — and asserting the right 
to control by force Oriental regions which did not originally 
belong to them. In short, they have had before them the 
example of Japan. That example has stirred deeply all the 
Oriental peoples; and it is impossible to see now how far that 
influence is going. It is plainly to be seen in India, and far 
beyond. 

The foreign visitor in China recognizes several types of 
face and figure in the population, yet does not see in these 
diversities any strong racial differences; but the Chinese 
themselves count five races in China, and have put five 
stripes of color into their new flag. These are, however, 
kindred races, closely alUed in origin and history. That is 
a very important fact with regard to the creation of this 
spirit of nationality. The Orient teaches the world that the 
pure race is the best; that crosses between unlike races seldom 
turn out well; and everybody knows that the cross between 
any Oriental stock and any European stock is regarded 
as unsuccessful throughout the Orient. Japan illustrates the 
value of a race kept pure. Wherever the Japanese go as 



THE MEANS OF UNIFYING CHINA 13 

colonizers they keep their race pure. No European race 
has done that. On the contrary, the white race transported 
to the East has mixed with every native race it has encoun- 
tered. It is the Oriental that has demonstrated the advan- 
tages of race purity. 

'('Not only are the Chinese people penetrated with this 
spirit of nationahty, they have been imbued with a fervent 
sentiment of patriotism. This, too, has originated in China 
with the educated class, and particularly with the young men 
who in recent years have been educated in Europe, America, 
and Japan. It was they who started the Revolution. Older 
people prepared it. Older people nursed it for nearly a gen- 
eration; but it was fired by the Chinese youth, educated in 
other countries. I have never seen anywhere better evi- 
dences of a widespread and intense sentiment of patriotism 
than I saw in China. 

Such are the chief means of unification for China. But 
consider for a moment what the obstacles are which this 
new government, now without any adequate resources, 
has to overcome. 

In the first place, as I have already pointed out, the Maii- 
chu Empire left nothing at all to the Republic. I suppose 
that example is almost, if not quite, unique in the world. 
We have seen in Europe many transitions from one form of 
government to another, from one government to another. 
We are ourselves used to a transition every four or eight 
years, when the whole structure of government, with all its 
powers, is transmitted from one administration to another. 
Here is a case where an old empire went out, was extin- 
guished, without transmitting anything of government 
organization or structure to its successor. Under these 
circumstances the poverty of China is a terrible obstacle to 
be overcome. It is poor not only in the sense that the gov- 
ernment is poor, or has no resources, but that the whole 
population is poor. Under despotic government no people 
ever lays up any capital. That is one of the uniform fail- 
ures of despotic government. Neither life nor property 
is safe under despotic government, and never has been. 
In China the rich man was always liable to be "squeezed" 



14 CHARLES W. ELIOT 

by any official who discovered that he was rich. The 
Chinese who have become rich in Singapore and Penang do 
not dare to take their property home. They have given 
most generously to the cause of the Revolution; but they 
dare not take their properties home, because they believe 
that the property acquired with pain in foreign countries 
will be unsafe in China. Therefore there is no considerable 
amount of capital in China; and in this lack of accumulated 
savings China must borrow from outside, borrow from the 
western countries where capital has accumulated in huge 
amounts. The poverty of the Republic is the first obstacle 
to be overcome. 

Then comes the dependence of China on the six powers 
that are sitting round about her and on her, each one except 
the United States really longing for a piece of China. What 
is the defence of China against that fear, that apprehension? 
Just the jealousy of one power toward another, or toward 
all the others. We are not liable to the accusation of self- 
interest and jealousy, because we want nothing in China 
in the way of a ''concession," a piece of territory, or a sphere 
of influence; but all the other five powers want harbors, free 
access to the multitudinous Chinese with the products of 
western factories, and free opportunities for the profitable 
investment of western capital. Now that dependence is a 
fearful trial to all Chinese statesmen, to all Chinese lovers of 
their country. What escape from that dependence? No 
escape, except the invention of a national system of taxation 
which will yield promptly an adequate national annual 
revenue. That way lies the only escape from the dependent 
condition of China. How can such a system be established? 
Not by any action of the Chinese themselves unaided. 
There are no men in China competent for that task; no 
Chinese have been trained competent to establish such a 
revenue for the government. Therefore, foreign advice is 
indispensable. It must be disinterested advice; it must not 
come through advisers thrust upon them by any one of the 
six powers. It must be advice given by foreigners employed 
by the Chinese government itself as its servants. One of the 
most difficult problems before the Chinese government 



THE MEANS OF UNIFYING CHINA 15 

today is, how to obtain disinterested foreign advisers for its 
service. It is encouraging that they have found one suitable 
adviser, Dr. George Ernest Morrison, a great friend of the 
Chinese people, a liberal, open-minded British subject, long 
resident in China, the collector of a unique library of books 
on China, and himself master of the library. There is a 
good beginning made. It is a great puzzle for the educated 
Chinese themselves how they can select the expert foreign 
advisers they reluctantly admit to be indispensable. One 
of the cabinet said to me, ''We Chinese cannot select the 
right kind of foreign adviser by looking at him and talking 
with him. We have difficulty in discerning the character of 
a western person in his face and manner. His manners are 
sure to be different from what we call good manners; and we 
cannot judge by the aspect, speech, and bearing of the foreign 
person whether he possesses the needed qualities of integrity 
and good judgment." I have heard a good many Occidental 
gentlemen say the same thing about judging the quality of 
Chinese gentlemen. We feel quite alike. Orientals and 
Occidentals, on that subject. 

What, then, are the grounds of hope for the Republic? 
How many Americans, Englishmen, and Scotchmen I met 
in China who had no hope at all for the Republic! How 
many who had really regretted the departure of the Man- 
chus? I met several eminent diplomats who until the middle 
of April had hoped that the Manchus might return to power, 
and had done everything in their power to bring about that 
return ;/it was not until the middle of April that the diplo- 
matic corps at Pekin made up their minds that the Manchus 
had gone forever. They were taken wholly by surprise 
by the outbreak of the Revolution, and for months they 
believed that the Manchus could head a limited monarchy 
with constitutional adjuncts. Now the most difficult form 
of government to set up and carry on is a constitutional 
monarchy. It is vastly more difficult than to set up a repub- 
lic, or a dictatorship with republican forms. Nevertheless, 
a great majority of the diplomats, consuls, and foreign mer- 
chants and barristers in China believed and hoped it would 
be possible to create in China a constitutional monarchy 



16 CHARLES W. ELIOT 

after the Manchus had abdicated. There are many foreign- 
ers now resident in China who cannot bring themselves to 
beheve that it is possible for a repubUc, even with a closely 
restricted suffrage, to be carried on in China. What ground 
is there for supposing, or imagining, that a republican form 
of government can be set up in China and be made stable? 
To my thinking, there is in the quality of the Chinese 
people as a whole strong ground for holding to that hope. 
The Chinese people have come through every possible 
struggle with adverse nature, and every possible suffer- 
ing from despotic government; they have come through 
recurrent floods, droughts, and famines; they have been 
subject without defence not only to the sweeping pesti- 
lences like small-pox, cholera, and the plague, but to all the 
ordinary contagious diseases, to tuberculosis, and to all the 
fevers. Yet here they are by .unknown hundreds of 
millions, tough, industrious, frugal, honest, and fecund. 
One hears of dishonest (at least, foreigners use that word 
in speaking of them) officials; but one seldom hears of a 
common Chinese man who is dishonest. They are notori- 
ously honest in trade, in dealing with each other, and even 
with foreigners. They seem not to be liable to the alcoholic 
temptation, and as a rule are peaceably inclined, although 
liable, like some other peoples, to be transported by gre- 
garious passions, superstititions, and panics. Now these 
are solid moral qualities in the Chinese. Their virtues are 
great, and high, and deep. Moreover, they have a produc- 
ing value which is wonderful. They get everything possible 
out of the soil of China; and as a Western-trained, refined 
Chinese woman physician said to me in Tientsin, a woman 
who has been through everything that a woman can endure, 
and is now practising her profession in the midst of the Chi- 
nese poverty and desolation, "Here we are, poor, suffering, 
but indomitable!" Here is the ground for believing that 
it may be possible to create a free government in China. 
After all, the real foundations of free government all over 
the world lie in the character of the people. They must 
deserve to be free. 



THE MEANS OF UNIFYING CHINA 17 

For an old American who has seen a good many 
changes of pubhc feehng at home, and has seen a large 
number of alien races come into his own country by 
the million, it is impossible not to sympathize profoundly 
with the present huge effort of the Chinese people. It is 
impossible for a visiting American with any experience in 
administration and its normal difficulties not to sympa- 
thize with these few men who have taken their lives in 
their hands and risked their whole careers, and are try- 
ing to build up a free government in China. Who could 
fail to sympathize with men in such a dangerous position, 
trying to do this immense service to such a people? And 
yet I am sorry to say that the lay representatives of the 
western peoples, the Occidentals living in China, diplomatic, 
consular, commercial, or industrial, have seldom manifested 
during the past year genuine sympathy with this immense 
effort on the part of a few hundred thousand men out of the 
huge population of China. It is very possible, indeed, com- 
mon, for a foreign merchant to remain a whole generation in 
China and never make the acquaintance of a single Chinese 
gentleman, or indeed, of any Chinese above the grade of a 
house-servant, a porter, or a clerk. An English merchant, 
who had been conducting thirty-five years a successful, 
widespread business in China, told me that he did not know 
a single word of Chinese, or a single Chinese man except his 
compradore. Hundreds of foreigners in China live there 
for many years without making the acquaintance of a single 
Chinese lady or gentleman. In the middle of the city of 
Tientsin in the British concession is a small municipal gar- 
den. On the gates of the garden there was posted until the 
Revolution had been some months in progress the following 
notice: ''No Chinese or dogs allowed." The secretary 
of the two municipal councils in Tientsin, an admirable 
Scotchman who has lived there many years, told me that 
that notice had been on those gates during his entire resi- 
dence in Tientsin, and that the practice continued, although 
the notice had been withdrawn. In the clubs organized and 
resorted to by English, Americans, and other foreigners in 



18 CHARLES W. ELIOT 

the Chinese cities, no Chinese person is eUgible for member- 
ship. Think what that imphes concerning the probable 
ignorance of the Occidental resident in China concerning the 
Chinese people, their qualities, their hopes, and their aspira- 
tions. The western people in China who really know some- 
thing about the Chinese are the missionaries, teachers, and 
other foreigners who go to China, and stay there, with some 
philanthropic purpose, or hope of doing good. They get into 
real contact and friendly relations with the Chinese, both 
educated and uneducated. One must not be surprised, 
therefore, if one finds among foreign business men who have 
lived in China only the most superficial acquaintance with 
Chinese conditions and qualities. On the other hand, the 
great confidence which foreign merchants and bankers in 
China exhibit in their Chinese cashiers and agents is a 
strong testimony to the fidelity and honesty of that class of 
Chinese employees. Knowledge of the Chinese language is 
all-important to make intercourse between Chinese and 
foreigners profitable and helpful. Failing that, English is 
the best language to use. I have seen two Chinese gentle- 
men, one from the north and the other from the south, give 
up trying to make themselves mutually understood in Chi- 
nese, and take to English as their means of communication. 
There they were successful. The foreign missionaries, both 
clerical and medical, and the foreign teachers learn something 
of the Chinese language, and so win access to the Chinese 
mind and heart. 

I believe I have put before you, ladies and gentlemen, 
some of the difficulties, obstacles, and apprehensions which 
beset the path of this wonderful Revolution, I hope I 
have also suggested to your minds the hopes and reasonable 
expectations we may cherish. My journey p;ave me the 
most interesting stay in a foreign country that I ever had, 
or indeed ever expect to have. I could not have arrived in 
China at a more interesting epoch, if I had had my choice 
over two thousand years; and we all are living in a time when 
an intelligent interest in the affairs of China will add not 
only to the breadth of our sympathies but to the enlarge- 
ment of our hopes and expectations for mankind. 



THE EFFECT OF THE REVOLUTION UPON THE 
RELATIONS BETWEEN CHINA AND THE 
UNITED STATES 

By Ching-Chun Wang, Ph.D., Assistant-Director of the Peking- 
Mukden Railway, Delegate from the Republic of China 
to the recent International Congress of Chambers 
of Commerce 

The Chinese people, heretofore silent and submissive, 
rose up so suddenly and simultaneously last year, that even 
careful observers were totally surprised. What was even 
more unexpected was the incredible brevity and unparal- 
leled bloodlessness of the Revolution. In less than one- 
third of a year, they have removed a monarchial system 
which had been regarded as unremovable, and introduced a 
democratic government which has stood the test during the 
most dangerous period of the last eleven months. They 
have done all this with a moderation and sanity which have 
never been paralleled, thus setting a new standard in the 
fighting and winning of revolutions by peaceful methods. 

What is going to be the effect of this upheaval upon the 
relations between the two largest nations on the Pacific? 
This question concerns us especially, for upon it largely 
depends the greatness of the one, the stability of the other, 
and the prosperity of both. 

In order to ascertain this effect, we may first of all examine 
what this great change means. It has been repeatedly 
said that one of the most certain results of the Revolution 
will be the increase of China's foreign trade. In spite of all 
sorts of drawbacks, this trade has already reached the enor- 
mous proportion of 870 million taels^ in 1910, as against 
455 million ten years ago. In other words, even behind 
closed doors, this trade has increased almost 100 per cent 
during the short space of a decade. Enormous as this 

^ A tael equals about 75 cents in American money. 

19 



20 CHING-CHUN WANG 

foreign trade may appear, it only represents two taels, 
or one dollar and a half per capita per year, which may easily 
be increased to five billion taels, if every Chinese consumes 
only one-half as much as each of his eastern neighbors, the 
Japanese. Therefore, we can see from all available signs 
that there is not the least doubt that this phenomenal increase 
of foreign trade will soon take place. 

Side by side with commerce, China's industries will ad- 
vance. She will bend every effort to utilize the enormous 
latent power of the millions and millions of her laborers for 
the development of her unlimited resources. When we 
recall that each one of these millions of the so-called coolies, 
who now idles his time away and proves to be a burden to 
society, on account of lack of productive occupation, has in 
him not only the power of making a comfortable living for 
himself and his family, but of adding a considerable share to 
the sum total of the wealth of the nation, if he is only given 
a fair chance to work, we may then have some idea of what 
these teeming millions mean. As the United States is 
gifted by nature with the inexhaustible power of Niagara and 
other falls, so China is no less blessed by God in having an 
equal, if not more precious amount of power in her immense 
industrious population. What China is now trying to do is 
to turn these millions to account, so that the misery and 
sufferings of which we have heard so much, may be changed 
into happiness and content, not by charity from outside but 
by making use of the worth of these sufferers themselves. 
The railroads — thousands and thousands of miles of them — 
must soon be built. Following the railway, the mines, which 
are not only extraordinarily rich but almost numberless, 
must be opened. Industries will in turn spring up. For- 
ests will be developed and agriculture modernized. In 
short, China will be completely transformed. 

Side by side with this material development, moral and 
religious advancement will also engage our attention. In- 
deed, from what the writer has seen and heard, he feels 
justified in saying that more effort will be devoted to the 
elevation of the moral and ethical standards of the people 
from now on than ever before, and that the belief in a single 



RELATIONS BETWEEN CHINA AND UNITED STATES 21 

Deity will be more rigorously revived, and eventually 
adopted as the dominating, if not the only, belief in China. 
This may sound impossible; but we must remember that the 
Chinese are a practical people, and that they are already 
beginning to see that there is no other religion which is more 
enlightening and practical than true Christianity. More- 
over, true Christianity, more than any other religion, agrees 
with Confucianism. As a matter of fact, these two doctrines 
can well be moulded together so as to be mutually helpful. 
Christianity suppUes the part which Confucius has omitted, 
while Confucianism, in China at least, could render Christian- 
ity not only easier to understand, but more up to date in 
every day life. The idea of God has been repeatedly, though 
vaguely, emphasized in the teachings which constitute Con- 
fucianism. Again and again, we find passages in the ancient 
books which refer to the Almighty as being omnipotent and 
omnipresent. By careful interpretation and with due notice 
of the difference in the religious temperament of the Chinese 
and in the characteristics of expression in the Far East, 
the true lovers of God could take advantage of the present 
change to Christianize China while the scientists and engi- 
neers are ''materiahzing" her. 

We said a moment ago true Christianity, because, like 
everything else, Christianity could be made to mean differ- 
ent things to suit various occasions, according to the degree 
of man's emotions or other circumstances. The apparently 
mechanical worship taking place all day and all over the 
streets in Russia does not seem to be the same thing as that 
shown by some of the reverent prayers offered in some of the 
churches elsewhere, and yet both are called Christianity. 
The heartless religious massacres of the middle ages, of which 
more than one sect were guilty, do not appear to be much 
more justifiable than the massacres recently reported to be 
taking place in Constantinople, and yet we understand they 
all were inspired by religious devotion and for Christian pur- 
poses. Therefore, we say true Christianity, for we do not 
need any more Christian superstitions in China than we need 
any other kind of superstitions. True Christianity must be 
that which only aims at the promotion of filial piety to God 



22 CHING-CHUN WANG 

and good fellowship among men. Anything that conflicts 
with this, to the writer at least, is not true Christianity. 
Therefore, we say true Christianity harmonizes, rather than 
conflicts, with Confucianism. The former attitude, harbored 
by some, of implacable hostility to all religions, ethics and 
philosophy other than Christian, and the persistent ignoring 
of the virtuous traditions and elevating customs which have 
acquired the dignity of venerable antiquity, is injurious to 
true Christianity itself; for such an attitude of disparaging 
one, deriding another and sneering at everything else that is 
found in the country, incurs the risk of defeating the very 
object which Christianity itself aims to attain. Indeed, 
such dogmatic efforts are hable to disintegrate the present 
social fabric and bring about the collapse of the existing 
morahty without, or at least before, firmly establishing a 
proper substitute. Therefore, it is only by an enlightened 
method, that Christianity may be made to bear its proper 
share of fruit of blessing in the regeneration of China, while 
by continued dogmatism, we can only reap thorny disputes. 

I have spent so much time on the question of religion for 
I believe that in the regeneration of China, material as well 
as moral and spiritual advancement must go side by side. 
What has saved China from disintegration during all these 
centuries and enabled her to stand the test of age is not 
material prosperity alone, much less military prowess, but 
her sacred inheritance of integrity in business, her unpar- 
alleled love of home and her tradition of avoiding going to 
extremes. In acquiring what is good in the western civiliza- 
tion, we shall endeavor to keep what is good in the civiliza- 
tion of our own. 

Therefore, what we are aiming at now is to remove all 
defects in law or custom, to do away with all that dwarfs 
knowledge or stifles the freedom of thought, as well as to 
clean away all unworthy elements in pride of race. We 
want to remove all these obstructions to progress, and change 
the past supercilious contempt for Western learning and 
Western help into enthusiastic eagerness and genuine respect. 
In short, we want to make a complete ''house-cleaning" so 
that we may be able to enjoy our own inheritance as well as 



RELATIONS BETWEEN CHINA AND UNITED STATES 23 

to contribute our share to the world. Instead of simply hear- 
ing people say it was our forefathers that first made gun- 
powder, invented printing, discovered the compass, and made 
many other useful inventions years ago, we want to do some- 
thing ourselves. Many may have reasonably wondered why 
the Chinese should have stopped contributing to the material 
advancement of the world after their early and marvelous 
start, and some others may have even ridiculed us for being 
unable to keep up the record made by our forefathers, as 
shown by the absence of further important material contri- 
butions to civilization. We admit this failure with regret, 
but we must point out that it has not been due to our lack of 
capability but to its strangulation and wrong application. 
We have made little material advancement, because we have 
been applying our mind and energy entirely to the study of 
certain fossilized classics and the writing of a certain stereo- 
typed system of essays. Think of what America could 
expect if she should make all her students study nothing but 
Shakespeare and use the ability of quoting passages from 
Cicero or Caesar as the criterion for selecting her officials! 
And yet, with few exceptions, that has been actually what 
China has been doing during the last one thousand years. 
Even our severest critics will understand why we have failed 
to advance materially as much as we should, when they know 
that we have been led by a false system to apply our intel- 
lects and energy in such a remorsefully wrong way. 

Some may ask, why has China not found out earlier that^ 
she was in the wrong channel. The only excuse she can offer 
is that her self-sufficiency and comparatively high level of 
development, reached a thousand years ago, led her to feel 
that she could get along well without any more feverish 
struggles for material advancement. We are an original 
race, unmodified and unstrengthened during thousands of 
years by the introduction of any foreign blood. We have 
been separated and segregated from all of the growing por- 
tions of humanity during all those ages, and left to act and 
react upon ourselves. As a result, we have obtained a 
great fixedness in our own characteristics. We are said to 
be lacking in the faculty of true discrimination; but if we 



24 CHING-CHUN WANG 

were it is because we have long been deprived of all opportu- 
nity to compare or contrast ourselves with equals, much less 
with superiors. We refused to learn from others, because for 
centuries we had been in contact with few who could teach 
us. We are, you may say, too closely bred and rendered 
near-sighted by continually gazing upon ourselves. Our 
faculties have been over-developed, wrongly developed, and 
at the same time, perhaps, under-developed. We acknowl- 
edge all our shortcomings of the past; but we cannot yet 
admit that today our faculties are either too weak or too 
decadent. To the contrary, we have waked up and are 
determined to go forward and learn from all others. We 
may appear a little awkward in the beginning in adapting 
ourselves to western methods, but we feel certain that we 
can make progress and finally catch up. All that we need is a 
little time to readjust ourselves to the new order of things. 
With a reasonable amount of help from our friends, and tak- 
ing advantage of our inheritance, we feel we shall soon be 
able, not only to take care of ourselves, but to contribute to 
the world as our forefathers did of old; and our only plea is 
that we may be permitted to work out our own salvation. 
What China has already accomplished only proves that 
she is able to, and will accomplish more. Within the short 
space of six years, and under almost insurmountable difficul- 
ties from both economic drawbacks within, and diplomatic 
hindrances without, she has practically wiped out the devil- 
ish habit of opium smoking, so evil in its effects and so diffi- 
-cult to eradicate, that it makes all other kinds of habitual vice 
;seem insignificant.^ She has made unexpected progress in 
the abolition of the time-honored and universal fashion of 
foot-binding, and has almost completed the removal of the 
queue.' Moreover, in the incredibly short time of forty- 
eight hours, she has accomplished the well-nigh impossible 
feat of changing her calendar of many hundreds of years 
standing. She has done all this quietly, modestly, and in a 

2 Consult also the author's article on "How China is Fighting Against 
Opium" in The World Today of July, 1910. 

' Also see the author's article on "The Abolition of the Queue" in the 
Atlantic Monthly of June, 1911. 



RELATIONS BETWEEN CHINA AND UNITED STATES 25 

business way. What China wants now is simply a chance 
to enable her intellectual, moral and material inheritance, 
which God has given to her and preserved for her during all 
these ages, to improve her own condition as well as to con- 
tribute the share which she owes others in solving the prob- 
lems which are now disturbing the stability of mankind. 

The Chinese have been known universally for their superi- 
ority as individuals and their weakness as a collective body. 
Writers say that the backwardness of China herself has 
been due to the lack of cohesion among the Chinese. Indeed, 
most of the struggles which China had heretofore were 
fought, not by China as a whole, but by three or four of her 
provinces. Once the Chinese millions unite, their collective 
strength will be increased in proportion to their individual 
superiority. If the recent Revolution has done nothing else, 
it has created a unanimity of sentiment and a feeling of one- 
ness among the Chinese people. When the cause of the Rev- 
olution was understood, the northerner and the southerner, 
the man from the east as well as the man from the west, all 
rushed to the revolutionary camps, eager to fight shoulder 
to shoulder and ready to fall side by side. Indeed, as re- 
marked by some correspondents, such united sentiment has 
never been seen in China before. When the time came for 
a compromise, these men were just as ready to lay aside all 
personal considerations for the safety of the country as they 
were ready to lay down their lives during the Revolution. 
The unparalleled self-denial exemplified by ex-President 
Sun and others in removing all misunderstanding and in 
bringing about a closer union between the north and the 
south, are but typical of the feeling of the thinking class. 
Indeed, it is the unprecedented oneness of sentiment of 
the Chinese people that has brought the Revolution to such 
a speedy and bloodless end; this unison of feeling is bound 
to grow and prove instrumental in the regeneration of the 
country. 

Therefore, the recent change has brought China to a 
point where she can, and will, no longer remain the Rip Van 
Winkle of the Far East. During the coining generation, she 
will, to use the common expression, have either to make or to 






26 CHING-CHUN WANG 

'break. We may see that selfishness has already led some 
of the powers to think that the awakening of China is not to 
;^f their advantage. They beheve it is to their interest that 
China should sleep always and remain ignorant eternally, 
so that they may satisfy their insatiable lust for grabbing 
other people's land and property. Indeed, some have 
already begun to take an unfair advantage of our situation 
to plunder, and have advanced arguments to justify their 
nefarious rascahty in the eyes of the world. It is hardly 
necessary to comment seriously upon the validity of their 
arguments, since Satan never has any difficulty in quoting 
the Scripture, when he finds it handy for his devilish schemes. 
Therefore, we hear that Russia bases her claim to outer Mon- 
golia upon her recent discovery, as the Russian press says, 
of an old document, somewhere in Siberia, which shows that 
Mongoha should be taken away from China.* To a less 
degree, England also seems to think that by some divine 
right, she has a claim on Tibet, etc. But as said by many 
impartial observers and well-wishers of mankind, these 
arguments however plausible they may appear, and like 
poetry, however elegant they may seem to their authors, 
are not only false and unsound, but do not even contain 
enough substance of reason to disguise or conceal their real 
underlying motives of outrageous robbery. 

Some of these vultures have been lurking around us for 
many years, and are now becoming more impatient than ever 
before, for they fear that now may be their last chance. On 
the other hand, after having emancipated themselves by 
both right and blood from the imperialism of the Manchu 
Court, the Chinese people are not hkely to suffer the imperial- 
ism of the Russians or any other people. If we should inherit 
the foreign debts and enormous indemnities, much of which 
was iniquitously imposed upon the dissolved Manchu gov- 
ernment, as the powers seem to take it for granted that we 
do, then by all laws of mankind, we feel we should also inherit 
the territories which were not only indisputably under the 
Manchu government, but have been rightfully inherited 

* See Nineteenth Century Review of October, 1912. 



RELATIONS BETWEEN CHINA AND UNITED STATES 27 

by US from time immemorial. Even filled with deliberate 
prejudice, the Russians themselves ought to know by con- 
science that Mongolia is ours, and that their argument^ in 
claiming that territory is not only untenable, but ridiculous, 
or even childish, when Russia herself urges that the obliga- 
tions of the same Manchu government should be met by 
the Republic. 

Here is the danger. If such greedy powers should pur- 
posely be so blind to the truth and actually take an undue 
advantage of our situation to plunder, and should the true 
friends of China be misled by some special interests to silently 
approve such plundering, they would only arouse the wrath 
of a people that may yet be able to protect and maintain 
what is right. The Chinese today feel and know what 
belongs to them, and are convinced by conditions in Siberia 
and elsewhere that subjugation by a foreign power only 
means strangulation of all possibilities of advancement, 
both materially and otherwise. They can tolerate anything 
and everything but further grabbing of their land. There- 
fore, by permitting or countenancing these powers to take an 
unfair advantage to slice territory from China, the civihzed 
nations might drive the Chinese to revenge in such a way as 
to turn what is soon to become a great ''hive of commerce" 
and prosperity into a cursed land of carnage and "Boxer- 
ism" as well as to endanger the peace of the world and para- 
lyze the advancement of mankind, while by the exertion of 
a due amount of effort to maintain international justice to 
China during this period, they may enable the Chinese 
people soon to be able to take care of themselves and to 
contribute a great share to the promoting of honorable peace 
among nations as well as to the advancement of general 
human happiness. Today, therefore, is the time when the 
great nations like the United States can either make the 
Chinese millions a mighty instrument for promoting peace 
and prosperity, by helping them to make their intended 
progress, or else they can drive these same peace-loving 

^ Their argument is, that as Mongolia belonged to the Manchu govern- 
ment, therefore it is free of China when the Manchu government is removed 
(Bee Nineteenth Century Review of October, 1912). 



28 CHING-CHUN WANG 

people, contrary to their will, to become bloodthirsty fiends 
for revenge, by countenancing the pending plunderings. 
Ought the Christian powers, above all the United States, 
to stand inert and see the vultures swoop upon China so 
soon after we have undergone such a serious "operation," 
and made a successful effort to recover and go forward? 
Would they drive us to desperate recklessness just at the mo- 
ment when we begin to try as hard as we can to carry out the 
very reforms and accomplish the veTy ends which their own 
people and statesmen have been trying for more than sixty 
years to drag us to accomplish? By concerted action, not 
only China but even the strongest nation in the world could 
be wiped from the map! In this enlightened age of ours, 
should all nations show no regard for the common right of 
humanity, and ignore the just claims and inalienable inher- 
itances of others? Should friendship mean words alone? 

Of course we understand that nations are not benevolent 
institutions, and that their legitimate object is to promote 
the interests of the people within their charge, while the 
protection of the weak or the uplift of mankind are said to 
be only favorite expressions to suit certain occasions. But 
even from a purely selfish point of view, we can also see that 
it is of mutual and unqualified advantage that the two sister 
Republics should become closer and more sympathetic 
toward each other. Their aims, aspirations, needs, resources 
and many other characteristics, are extraordinarily harmoni- 
ous and cooperating. All observers agree that the chief, if 
not the only, aim of the United States, is to develop com- 
merce. As said Mr. John Foord, the able secretary of the 
Asiatic Society, the whole purpose of American diplomacy 
in China has been the furtherance of trade.® American 
statesmen, business experts and veteran writers, have again 
and again emphasized the importance of the Chinese market. 
It certainly could not be of advantage to the American people 
as a whole, should China be Russianized or even remain 
weak. 

On the other hand, the Chinese have made it long since 
clear that they welcome America's trade, and that, with 

* G. H. Blakeslee: China and the Far East, p. 114. 



RELATIONS BETWEEN CHINA AND UNITED STATES 29 

their own wholesome traditions and unlimited inheritance, 
they can certainly prove of considerable value and assistance 
to America, at least in this matter of commerce. Sending 
your first ship of trade to China in 1784, the American 
merchant has from the outset obtained a good footing.^ 
By leaps and bounds this trade has continued to grow until 
today it is second only to that of Great Britain and Japan, 
with a good prospect of catching up with both. 

The existing trade of America, which is already approach- 
ing one hundred million taels a year, is but a small fraction 
of what may be expected to follow the opening up of the 
country. Those who know what possibilities lie in China's 
trade say that to increase the present figure ten times is but 
an easy matter, and that America should soon be able to 
compete even with Great Britain for the hon's share, if 
American merchants will only go after that trade which 
lies at their feet. Instead of the former closed doors which 
American statesmen tried so hard, for many years, to ham- 
mer through, today the whole country is ready to open. 
The Chinese are not only willing, but anxious to trade with 
America, for they know that she does not grab their land 
under the cover of trade or Christianity, and they also feel 
that the wider the sphere of mercantile relations between 
China and the United States, the more intimate the two 
countries will become. The writer is happy to say that the 
high type of business men of both China and the United 
States is going to contribute no small share to the unparal- 
leled good relations between these two countries. The 
recent contact with so many leading business men of this 
country during the writer's tour from Boston to San Fran- 
cisco impresses him vividly with their sterling worth as well 
as their capability and readiness to promote what is good. 
It is also gratifying to say that in this good effort the Ameri- 
can business man may find in the Chinese merchant a worthy 
and, perhaps, helpful mate. Therefore, there is every reason 
to believe that as your trade with China began at the begin- 

'' Portuguese merchants were the first to come to China in 1516; England 
came second in 1637; while the United States was the seventh. China Year 
Book, 1912, p. 74. 



30 CHING-CHUN WANG 

ing of your Republic, so it should take a new turn of pros- 
perity from the beginning of our Republic, unless the United 
States should change her former square-deal policy. 

It may also be mentioned that above all the United States 
is a power of the Pacific. The purchase of Alaska, the acqui- 
sition of Hawaii, the occupation of the Philippines, together 
with the construction of the Panama Canal, make it unmis- 
takable that the future activity of America will largely 
be directed towards the Pacific Ocean. It is inevitable that 
it should be so, for the Pacific, as prophesied by William H. 
Seward half a century ago, is soon to become the center of 
civilization. Moreover, as it was the achievements on the 
Pacific in 1898 that gave the United States her place in the 
opinion of the world, so it will be what she accomplishes on 
the Pacific that upholds her position and prestige. China, 
in spite of her slowness, is yet able, and bound, to play an 
important part in determining the affairs on that ocean. 
The good will of that vast country, with her teeming mil- 
lions, unlimited resources, and wholesome traditions, deserves 
not only to be maintained, but to be improved. The open 
door, which in reality means more than an equal opportunity 
to your trade and advancement,^ for which your statesmen 
have been fighting so hard, should not be slightly sacrificed 
and gradually closed by a silent approval of, or inert indif- 
ference toward, the land-grabbing which some of the Powers 
are planning. Because every foot of China Russianized 
or in any other way alienated, means just that much damage 
to American trade and prestige. The United States has 
so committed herself, and is so peculiarly related with China 
from the beginning of their intercourse, that the harm done 
to the one is bound to be felt by the other sooner or later. 
Indeed, "every blow aimed at the independence of that 
ancient empire," as remarked an able American writer, ''is 
a blow at the prestige of this Republic, part of a deliberate 
attempt to make the position of the United States in 'the 
world's great hereafter' that of a second-rate power."' 

* This is perhaps why some nations prefer and actually brought about 
the closed door in some parts of the country. 

* G. H. Blakeslee, China and the Far East, p. 111. 



RELATIONS BETWEEN CHINA AND UNITED STATES 31 

Therefore, even if we cast aside the moral obligations which 
a strong nation owes to humanity, and change our question 
of what is best for China into what is best for the United 
States in China, or on the Pacific Ocean, we must still see 
that America is bound to profit by exerting substantial 
efforts to help China to struggle over her period of regenera- 
tion. In return China, as her traditions teach, will recipro- 
cate a hundredfold. 

There are, therefore, the strongest a priori reasons in 
favor of a closer and even more sympathetic understanding 
between the two great Republics in the world. China is 
slow, stupid, conservative, and everything else, but never- 
theless, with her prodigious numbers, her vast extent, her 
unlimited resources, and her instinctive sense of gratitude, 
she can be a coadjutor in Asia of no mean value. 

But, further, to judge the probability of close friendship 
between these two great Republics, we need only to examine 
the past. The relations between these countries have 
always been most cordial. They have never had even a 
quarrel, to say nothing of war. The United States is known 
to the Chinese as the only power which not only has never 
tried to seize our land, but has always endeavored to prevent 
others from committing such injustice. This feeUng alone 
is enough to insure a lasting gratitude in the heart of the 
Chinese. The part played by John Hay in saving China 
from the clutches of the powers during the Boxer uprising 
in 1900, the unparalleled fairness of Mr. Roosevelt in influ- 
encing Congress to return to us the surplus Boxer indemnity, 
the recent efforts of President Taft in preventing interfer- 
ence during our Revolution, the unanimously carried resolu- 
tion of Congress introduced by Governor-elect Sultzer for 
the recognition of the Chinese Republic, and the enthusiastic 
sympathy shown us by the best type of Americans all over 
the country, are but a few of the many favors from the 
United States which the Chinese people can never forget. 
Gratitude is not only an eminent virtue, as observed by 
many, but almost an inherited habit of the Chinese. ^^ As 

1" Consult Herbert A. Gile's, Civilization of China, chapter on "Chinese 

and Foreigners." 



32 CHING-CHUN WANG 

soon as circumstances permit, China will, without the least 
doubt, demonstrate her appreciation of the favors shown 
her during the time when she is helpless. Indeed in a 
limited manner, she has already began to show her appre- 
ciation. We still remember how the late Burlingame^^ 
was honored by China as her special ambassador to Europe 
in recognition of his friendly help. It was out of apprecia- 
tion of America's fairness in returning the surplus Boxer 
indemnity that China has by her own will decided to use 
that money entirely for the education of her young men in 
the United States, the meaning of which act must be clear 
to every thinking American. Indeed, the feeling of grati- 
tude of the Chinese towards the American people as a whole, 
and John Hay in particular, will become more profound as 
we progress. When China is free from obstructions of the 
greedy powers, and starts on her own way to progress, we 
can prophesy that the most majestic monument in honor of 
the Christian statesmanship of John Hay will not be found 
in the United States, but in China. For John Hay wiU 
become more beloved to the Chinese than to his own 
people. 

Then again, the Chinese know perfectly well that America 
only desires greater trade facilities. As President Taft has 
recently declared, trade is the forerunner of peace and 
friendship. ^2 'pj^^ Chinese have always believed in this 
doctrine, and therefore they welcome the Americans. A 
trade that benefits only one side of the bargain will not last 
long, while that which benefits both is not going to be 
slighted by either. Thus as our commercial relations in- 
crease so will our friendship grow. With her geographical 
advantages, her enormous resources and her characteristic 
capacity in business enterprise, America should have the 
best advantage over all in distributing her commerce and 
disseminating her influence in the regeneration of China, 
which is bound to follow the Revolution. 

"Consult Frederick W. Williams: Anson Burlingame and the First 
Chinese Mission to Foreign Powers, New York, 1912. 

" Before the Fifth International Congress of Chambers of Commerce in 
Boston. 



EELATIONS BETWEEN CHINA AND UNITED STATES 33 

It must also be mentioned that America itself is directly ^ 
responsible for the Revolution. Indeed some even go so 
far as to say that it was an American Revolution, because , ,^^ 
it was so much American. In the first place many of the ^X'^ 
leaders of the movement, such as ex-President Sun Yat- 
Sen, were either educated in America or lived under Amer- 
ican influence. In every revolutionary center, there were 
numbers of American-educated students. Therefore as the 
French Revolution was inspired by America's success so 
China's Revolution was brought about and won by America's 
education. 

There must be added the fact that many Americans 
themselves — missionaries, educators and merchants alike — 
were in no small measure personally responsible for what 
happened in China. Besides sowing the seed of the Revo- 
lution during the last sixty years, these Americans have shown 
unmistakable sympathy and rendered every legitimate help 
to the Revolution. Indeed the Christian efforts of these 
self-sacrificing men in leaving their own homes and coming 
over to China to preach the Gospel and to diffuse knowl- 
edge, as well as their help during the Revolution itself, 
have contributed no small share in making the Revolution 
so sane and bloodless. The good results of their efforts have 
won not only the confidence, but also the good will of the 
Chinese people, and there is not the slightest doubt that these 
Americans will exert even a greater influence in the future. 

As the seed of the Revolution was sown by America 
thirty years ago in the hearts of our students who first came 
to this country, so the constructive work following the Revo- 
lution will be done under the influence of America which 
hundreds and hundreds of our leaders will receive. The 
handful of young men who received their education in this 
country have already done a great deal; but what may be 
expected of the hundreds of our students now found in every 
important educational institution of America cannot but 
be tremendous. These young men study not only American 
text books, but they themselves become Americanized. 
When they return to China they do everything they can to 
spread the good name of America. 



34 CHING-CHUN WANG 

Therefore, since the seed of the Revolution was sown by 
America, and the success and saneness of it made possible 
by American educated men with the help of American 
citizens, and since the constructive work will also be done 
directly under American influence as well as along principles 
laid down by America, we can easily see that every success 
China makes will mean just that much credit to the United 
States, while each failure she meets will no less reflect upon 
America. 

As we realize more clearly the great influence which Amer- 
ica has had upon this Revolution, we shall feel more grateful 
for our success towards her, the result of which will not 
only be the increase of American trade, but American ideas 
as well, in China. We have eight hundred students in the 
United States today; we shall probably have twice that 
number five years to come. In return, the number of your 
missionaries, educators, and merchants to China will 
increase in proportion to meet the greater demand. This 
exchange of goods, ideas and men between our two countries 
is bound to improve the understanding and mutual apprecia- 
tion of each other, the result of all of which cannot but be a 
still closer relationship between our two nations. 

We must remember, however, that there are some danger- 
ous circumstances which might imperil our good prospects. 
We do not fear any political differences between our two 
nations, nor do we even need to mention the once possible 
irritation arising from the exclusion act. Concerning the 
difficulties arising from the latter, we believe that the best 
type of Americans regret the existence of such difficulties 
as much as we do. Moreover, we also believe in the good 
sense of the American people who have been endeavor- 
ing and will continue to endeavor to ameliorate all the 
obnoxious features until the act will no longer remain 
humiliating to us or unbecoming to you. 

Furthermore, we also feel that we can take care of our 
own coolies. In the developing of our railways, mines, and 
manufactures, we certainly shall be in need of our own cheap 
labor. In addition, our uncultivated land alone will fur- 
nish employment to whatever labor we can spare, provided 



RELATIONS BETWEEN CHINA AND UNITED STATES 35 

Russia does not succeed in stealing too much of it from us. 
China proper itself is estimated, on good authority, ^^ to be 
sufficient to maintain a population of 650 to 700 millions. 
In other words, by simply developing our own provinces, 
we can increase our population 80 per cent, and get along 
comfortably for at least fifty or a hundred years, without 
requiring any relief by exodus. We may also venture to 
say that, if America keeps on increasing her population at 
the present rate, and with such help as Colonel Roosevelt's 
crusade against race suicide, and Dr. Eliot's recent preach- 
ing before the Harvard freshmen in favor of marriage, at the 
end of fifty years China might have to reverse the law so as 
to bar American emigrants. This may seem too much like 
a joke. Nevertheless, it is by no means impossible. At 
any rate, many may have already found out that the fear 
of the invasion of the Chinese immigrant is passing away 
from the hearts of even those who used to make the loudest 
cry, while many others are beginning to feel the need of the 
help of Chinese agricultural labor. As a matter of fact, 
China herself disfavors the unregulated emigration of her 
ignorant classes as much as the United States. Under such 
circumstances, we need not worry the least over this unpleas- 
ant question, because it will soon die its natural death. 

What seems to be the real danger lies in the unduly selfish 
acts which may be committed by some of the financial '' pro- 
moters" who hesitate sometimes neither to extract a pound 
of flesh for a pound of gold — to use the familiar expression — 
nor to sell the good will which others have won. This 
danger would become perilous should the governments be 
misled to sacrifice what is good for their people in the long 
run, for the immediate but short-lived gains of a few. I 
refer especially to the unfortunate act of the American 
China Development Company of some seven years ago,^* 

13 G. Curson, Problems of the Far East, p. 399. 

" Led by her confidence in America, China granted to the American- 
China Development Company the concession for the construction of the 
trunk line between Canton and Hankow, a distance of about one thousand 
miles, on the expressed condition that the controlling interest of the con- 
cession should remain in the hands of Americans. Soon after the conces- 
sion was granted the American financiers sold the controlling interest 



36 CHING-CHUN WANG 

by which these promoters betrayed the confidence of China, 
sold the fair name of America, and incidentally brought 
down a widespread boycott against the innocent American 
people. A gigantic swindle is no word to express that near- 
sighted deal. Time and space forbid us to go into details 
of that transaction, which is regarded as unfortunate both 
by China and the United States. Suffice it to say that that 
was the only thing which has done much damage to the 
good feeling between the people of our two countries, and 
that all well-wishers of both countries should try in every 
way to prevent similar unfortunate acts from being re- 
peated to mar America's fair name of the past or to damage 
her immense trade opportunities in the future. We call 
attention to dangers from such or similar sources, for it 
is well known that it is for such purposes that even good 
people may be led to misrepresent, to fabricate or to do 
everything else that proves expedient. 

In conclusion, we may observe again that the relations 
between China and the United States have always been both 
cordial and sympathetic. As a result of the Revolution, 
their mutual responsibilities, as well as mutual obligations 
have increased. These two great nations are bound to have 
a thousand times more to do with each other; and as this 
increased intercourse grows and multiplies, the relations 
between them will become more sympathetic and their 
friendship more intimate. Because the relationship between 
these two countries is not the result of mutual fear, but of 
mutual advantage, harmony in interest and identity of 
ideals. 



directly to some Belgians, but indirectly to Russia, the very thing which 
China tried to avoid. As a result China was compelled to purchase back that 
interest at an enormous financial sacrifice, besides suffering other difficulties. 
Also see P. H. Kent, Railway Enter-prise in China, 1907, pp. 96-121, and the 
author's article on "Why the Chinese Oppose Foreign Railway Loans" in 
the American Political Science Review of August, 1911. 



THE NEW HOLY ALLIANCE FOR CHINA 

By Albert Bushnell Hart, LL.D., Professor of Government in 
Harvard University 

From present day amenities we turn to speak of the Holy 
Alliance, a subject not precisely relevant to the addresses of 
the morning, or likely to fit with the addresses that are to 
follow. I come as an amateur to speak to persons already 
better informed, to those who know what they are talking 
about. It is the peculiar province of the scholar first to 
appropriate the materials laboriously collected by other 
people; second, to generalize upon those materials, but in 
a spirit different from that of those who have collected them; 
and third, to promulgate what he hopes may be the eventual 
truth. 

The historical criticisms of the closet scholars have ages 
ago attracted the attention of the great writers of an older 
race. One of the early Chinese classics remarks that 
"scholars teach men what is contrary to your laws. When 
they hear that an ordinance has been issued, everyone sets 
to discussing it with all his learning. In the court they are 
dissatisfied in heart; out of it they keep talking on the streets. 
While they make a pretence of vaunting their Master, they 
consider it fine to have extraordinary views of their own. 
And so they lead the people on to be guilty of murmuring 
and of evil speaking." As such a discontented scholar, 
I feel too much like the school boy who was called upon to 
define figure of speech, and to give an example. This was 
the result: "A figure of speech is when you say what you do 
not mean and yet mean what you say. Example : He blows 
his own horn." That does not mean that he has a horn, but 
that he blows it." 

In 1815 was founded by three great European powers 
through their sovereigns, Francis the First, Frederick Wil- 
liam, and Alexander the First, a solemn league^which they 

37 



38 ALBERT BXJSHNELL HART 

called the Holy Alliance. In course of time all of the Euro- 
pean powers gave it their adhesion except three — the Papacy, 
the Ottoman Porte, and Great Britain, though the Prince 
Regent, caused it to be remarked that England was in sym- 
pathy with the combination. If the Holy Alliance had only 
been sincere there would have been no more wars, no pesti- 
lences, no strikes, no duns — it was a great universal sedative, 
a mutual political insurance company. The purpose was 
that there never should be any more disturbances of the 
then existing international status. 

The sovereigns held several congresses, at Aix-la-Chapelle 
in 1818; at Troppau and Laybach in 1820 and 1821; and at 
Verona in 1822. They issued to the world some remarkable 
statements of their high moral purposes. Thus in 1820 they 
declared that the "Powers are exercising an incontestable 
right in taking common measures in respect to those states 
in which the overthrow of the government may result in 
an hostile attitude toward all continuous and legitimate 
government." In the next year at Laybach they solemnly 
announced that "useful and necessary changes in the legis- 
lation and administration of states must emanate alone 
from the free will and enlightening impulse of those whom 
God had rendered responsible for power," that is, from them- 
selves. This lofty spirit reminds one of the remark of a 
great railroad president a few years ago, that the commercial 
affairs of the country should be carried on by those to whom 
God had given authority over the property of the country. 

The Holy Alliance very soon found its opportunity when 
revolutions broke out in Spain, in Naples, and in Portugal, 
and it set itself to restore the monarchs whose faithful sub- 
jects did not appreciate them. The most striking thing 
about the Holy Alliance is not so much that it existed, as 
that its whole effort was an abject failure. To be sure 
Austria as the representative of the Holy Alliance crushed 
out the revolution in Naples; but Naples eventually became 
a part of the free and united Italy. France restored absolu- 
tism in 1823; but Spain, after a period of ninety years is 
still going through a process of protest against absolutism. 
A revolution broke out in Greece in 1821, and then and there 



THE NEW HOLY ALLIANCE FOR CHINA 39 

began that century-long process which through the arms of 
four of the Balkan Christian powers is apparently just reach- 
ing its end. The attempt to subvert free thought was 
absolutely hopeless. That is the Holy Alliance assumed to 
determine what should be the proper type of government 
and political thought in Europe : it absolutely failed in main- 
taining its cherished type of government; and it became a 
laughing stock for the nations. 

In the year of grace 1912 we observe a combination of 
European powers partly operating in China, partly operating 
at the headquarters of their governments in Europe, which 
is fairly comparable to the Holy Alliance in its form, in its 
purposes, and, we trust, in the eventual failure of its aims. 
The basal idea of the combination of European powers 
is that six associated foreign nations can better decide than 
the Chinese themselves what shall be the future govern- 
ment and the destiny of that great empire. This principle 
is not a new one. I see before me people who have lived for 
years in China, and they can tell you better than a visitor 
for a few months about the general relations of diplomats 
and commercial men to the Chinese government and people. 
They will however all agree that from the time that the 
European powers first broke into China, which was in 1840, 
the Europeans have in general adhered to the idea that 
their presence in China was not based on advantage to the 
Chinese, but on their own purposes, and for their own bene- 
fit. Thus Burlingame wrote in 1868: "Yet, notwithstand- 
ing this manifest progress, there are people who will tell you 
that China has made no progress, that her views are retro- 
grade, and they will tell you that it is the duty of the West- 
ern duty powers to combine for the purpose of coercing 
China into reforms that they may desire and which she does 
not desire — who undertake to state that these people have 
no rights which they are bound to respect. In their coarse 
language they say, 'Take her by the throat.' Using the 
tyrant's plea they say they know better what China wants 
than China herself does." That, you see, was many years 
ago, nearly half a century, in a period of impatience with 
China. 



40 ALBERT BUSHNELL HART 

One reason for this attempt on the part of the Europeans 
to control China is an ignorance of the real character of the 
Chinese. Of all the people who visit China and even who 
spend years there, few really become sufficiently acquainted 
with the Chinese to put them within the possibility of under- 
standing the conditions of the Chinese mind or the ultimate 
purposes of the Chinese government. It is a standing ..criti- 
cism upon foreign business men that they associate so little 
with the Chinese; that so few of them ever acquire the lan- 
guage, that so very few qualify themselves to give an expert 
opinion on what is going on in China. Many years ago an 
English consul said, ^' There is perhaps no country in the 
world frequented by the English-speaking race in which 
merchants are so lamentably ignorant of the customs and 
resources of the locality in which they live as they are at 
this moment in China, and this is entirely to be attributed to 
a want of familiarity with the language." 

Perhaps there has been a similar ignorance on the part of 
the Chinese. Thus Wo Jen, grand secretary of the imperial 
library in 1868 wrote, ''As to observing the customs of the 
foreigners and learning from them — their customs are noth- 
ing but lasciviousness and cunning, while their inclinations 
are simply fiendish and malignant." Of course that is 
brutally insulting for an Oriental to say of an Occidental, 
but when we say similar things of the Chinese it is only a 
needed rebuke to an inferior people. 

In 1868 or thereabouts a man named Robertson wrote in 
an English review: ''If China will assent to progress and 
development of her resources under a system of well-con- 
sidered pressure by the foreign ministers; even if its rulers 
are under fear of armed compulsion if they refuse, we can- 
not see that the exercise of this pressure in a reasonable 
manner by the foreign governments is objectionable. Any 
improvement in China is possible only under such a system. 
We have no desire to be unjust or unreasonable toward 
the Chinese .... but we strongly object to any 
assurance being given the Chinese authorities that the 
time and manner of their progress are left to their own 
discretion, and that therefore, they need no longer fear to 



THE NEW HOLY ALLIANCE FOR CHINA 41 

disregard the demands of the British minister at Pekin. 
The judgment of the Chinese themselves 
on the perils that beset their future course is utterly 
worthless." 

That, of course, is exactly in line with the present attempt 
of foreign powers to decide the destiny of China. I quote 
it simply to illustrate the underlying idea held by many of 
the diplomats, that China exists chiefly to furnish oppor- 
tunities for the application of the advanced principles of the 
West, that God created that people, not in order that there 
might be a Chinese nation, but that they might furnish a 
field for Chinese investment. 

^yThe European powers were a long time, three centuries in 
fact, in obtaining access to the Chinese ports, because of an 
obstinate Chinese determination not to trade with exterior 
nations. Under great pressure the Chinese were prevailed 
upon to open up a certain number of their ports as points of 
contact between themselves and the outside world. Then 
began a system of European regulation of these ports, and 
then the ticklish business of a European power undertaking 
to say, ''You must make even your customs duties to suit 
us." > We must not forget that the bottom idea of all the 
treaty stipulations as to extraterritoriality, customs rates and 
intercourse is not the welfare of the people in Asia, but the 
profit and ease of doing business by the people in the West, 
and the prestige of the governments that thus intervene. 

/As soon as a foothold in the treaty ports was gained, began 
the process of seizing territory. Most of the powers wanted 
to push up into the country as far as they could back of 
the treaty ports. They were always demanding more privi- 
leges of intercourse, and of late years have made a deter- 
mined and concerted campaign for concessions from the 
Chinese. The Chinese are not held competent to decide 
on their own means of transportation. And foreigners are 
eager to build railroads, not because they think the Chinese 
need railroads, but because the European and American,' 
bankers need the profit of the railroads. The imperial gov-' 
emment was very ill-organized to resist such pressure; at 
the start it was not accustomed to relations with foreign 



\y 



42 ALBERT BIJSHNELL HART 

powers: it formed the Tsung Li Yamen with great regret, 
and stohdly held back in all negotiations for further power 
and influence to foreigners. 

The whole situation in China is complicated by the 
foreign possession of so many pieces of territory which the 
Chinese fondly suppose are theirs. To say nothing about 
Cochin-China, Hong Kong, Kowloon, Tsintau, Wei Hai 
Woi and Port Arthur are now in the possession of the Ger- 
mans, the English and the Japanese; and the Japanese and 
Russians are occupying parts of Manchuria and Mongolia^ 
That is, four of the six powers that are now engaged in tEe 
attempt to manage and control China, are at the present 
moment in possession of large territories, every square yard 
of which the Chinese look upon as filched from them. 
\ For a long time the powers engaged in single wars with 
China, each on its own account, and those wars were accom- 
panied by a ruthlessness and destruction which can hardly 
be supposed to be a high moral lesson to the Chinese. If a 
foreign army should capture New York and plunder the 
Metropolitan Museum of Art and sell its irreplaceable treas- 
ures to peddlers, we should hardly think it a mark of Chinese 
civilization! Yet that was just what happened to the winter 
palace in 1860. Since 1900 the European powers have 
usually made it a point not to ask for individual privileges, 
but for joint privileges; so that the experience of China was 
that if Russia got a concession for a railroad, the French were 
instantly besieging for a like favor. And if Russia seized 
a piece of Chinese territory the Germans thought they must 
have a similar piece of stolen goods. Since the expedition 
to Peking in 1900 there has been a common mihtary under- 
standing. ' 

The Chinese have always resented this form of diplomacy. 
They look upon their European friends as the Russian hero 
looked upon the king of the sea when the sea monster said: 
'' 'Tis a long time since I have eaten fresh flesh, and lo! 
here it comes right into my very hands! Welcome, friend. 
Come here, and let me see at which end of you I shall begin!" 
Then the Tsarevitch began to say that among good people 
one behaved not so badly as to eat another up. 'That is 



THE NEW HOLY ALLIANCE FOR CHINA 43 

too much/ cried the sea monster, 'he comes to force his own 
rules and regulations upon the homes of other people.' " Is 
it an exaggeration to say that the feeling of Europeans has 
been that any attempt of the Chinese to prevent the entry 
into and the commercial use of their country was regarded 
as an affront to Europe? 

(^More recently has developed a common responsibility, 
particularly shown in the negotiations for indemnities after 
the Boxer outbreak. One of the interesting things about 
this combination is that a new European power has joined it, 
and that is Japan. The Japanese claim the privileges 
granted to Western powers — such as the right of interven- 
tion, extraterritoriality, and the right to trade on the Yangtze 
in subsidized vessels. ^ They have put up a magnificent 
group of buildings at Hankow. 

All this suggests the sublime purpose of the Holy Alliance, 
to do people good against their will; but the difficulty is 
increased by a commercial combination, the purpose of 
which is first of all to obtain concessions, for railroads, mines, 
and other needed enterprises. Anybody can see that China 
lacks capital, a need no more common there than on the 
Pacific slope of the United States, or on northwestern 
Canada. Such an infusion of borrowed wealth would enable 
the country rapidly to develop its means of transportation 
and its immense physical resources. The prime difficulty 
is that the powers conceive that they have an inherent right 
to invest money in China on terms which they themselves 
lay down; while in general the Chinese believe that the 
commercial agreements which they are asked to ratify are 
unfavorable to them. At the moment the burning question 
is that of loans. China has long been a borrower on not 
very favorable terms, and there is already a considerable 
national debt. The revolution has cost a lot of money and 
there is a demand for more loans first of all to pay off and 
disband troops. A group of bankers favored by the six 
powers have established themselves as a syndicate for this 
business, and propose terms on which they will place a 
$300,000,000 loan. 

The six-power loan under consideration in November, 



44 ALBERT BUSHNELL HART 

1912, is practically the work of a commercial Holy Alliance 
formed to regulate Oriental affairs. The determination of 
the ministers of six great powers in consultation to push 
through a financial transaction which China does not like 
is an unseemly spectacle, not relieved by the undeniable fact 
that weak powers are frequently called upon to yield to 
v/ stronger forces. A foreign administration of the loans is 
one of the conditions, though hard and humiliating — for it 
is urged that Orientals cannot conduct their native finances. 
The Japanese know better, for they have almost dispensed 
with foreign financial engineers and managers. 

The next demand, which is at least evidently favored by 
the powers, is that if money is lent it shall be lent only by a 
combination of the bankers of the six powers. I regret that 
the United States should be one of the partners in such an 
enterprise. The American bankers are justified in looking 
after their own interests, and in finding a profitable invest- 
ment for their money; but it is a serious business for the 
bankers to insist that they will lend the money only in case 
a foreign administrator is to follow it. For the power to 
supervise the expenditure of that money includes the power 
to control much of the finances and the public works of 
China. It involves an inspection and regulation of the inter- 
nal financial administration of the country. 

In the background the Chinese believe that they see the 
shadow of the armed man. A few years ago they gave Rus- 
sia permission to build a railroad across Manchuria and to 
protect it with guards. The Russian conception of guards 
was an army of 50,000 men intending to stay on Chinese soil, 
and their descendants forever. The Chinese suspect that it is 
the intention of the powers, whenever they think it necessary, 
to send troops into the country to enforce the carrying out of 
conditions. In the six groups each group has its govern- 
ment behind it, which demands a share in the loan for its 
citizens as a matter of right. What is the reason for this 
pressure? Mainly that each group of bankers expects that 
the Chinese will spend at least a part of the loans for materials 
and supplies, and that the orders will go through the loaning 
bankers and to their friends and commercial connections. 



THE NEW HOLY ALLIANCE FOR CHINA 45 

I speak subject to correction by those who are better 
acquainted with the subject, but when I was in China in 
1909 that was the point stated to me; and the negotiations 
for the loan now appear to turn on that issue. 

Outside of finance, what is the relation of the New Holy 
Alliance to the Chinese republic? One reason for the pres- 
ent combination is undoubtedly that some of the powers are 
not pleased with the proposed democratic government of 
China. But it is no longer possible for any one European 
or American power seriously to affect the internal govern- 
ment of China, for the potential strength of that nation is 
coming to be more and more realized. 

Of the six powers, two are themselves democracies, the 
United States and France. On the other hand an Asiatic 
republic is on the face of things repugnant to both Russia and 
Japan. And there is perhaps no country in the world that 
is so genuinely democratic as China, no country in which 
the affairs of the local communities are more systematically 
regulated by the people themselves. This distrust of democ- 
racy is combined with a feeling that the republic cannot 
stand; and this objection is confronted by the fact that there 
is no other kind of national government now in existence 
or in prospect in China, no royal dynasty, no acknowledged 
oligarchy. Granted the weakness of the present republic is 
stronger than any government which could be established 
by external influence and pressure. 

The real objection is to the possibility of a permanent 
strong power in China which shall realize the inconven- 
ience and national discredit through foreign domination. 
Any strong Chinese power will certainly address itself to 
the status of the concessions in the treaty ports in which 
the Europeans rule portions of Chinese territory. 

Equally acute is the question of the government of the 
European colonies within the Chinese boundaries. If the 
Chinese government, republic or kingdom, is once aroused 
to the possibility of expelling the foreigners, the era of 
European domination is over. Hence the unwillingness to 
allow the low scale of import duties to be changed for 
it is intimately related to the trade of the treaty ports. Of 



46 ALBERT BUSHNELL HART 

course the United States recognizes that a system of high 
duties on imports is inequitable to foreign powers and ab- 
solutely inconsistent with the principles of international law. 
The privileges of the interior, especially those of the Yang- 
tse Kiang, are also involved. Admiral Mahan says: "The 
close approach and contact of eastern and western civiliza- 
tion, and the resultant mutual effects, are matters which 
can no longer be disregarded, or postponed from any argu- 
ments derived from the propriety of non-interference, or 
from the conventional rights of a so-called independent state 
to regulate its own affairs. They have ceased to be its own 
in the sense of Chinese isolation — as the nations have insisted 
that we shall be allowed to sell and buy without pretending 
that the Chinese subject should be compelled to trade with 
us — so they will have to insist that currency be permitted to 
our ideas, liberty to exchange thought in Chinese territory 
with individual Chinamen, though equally without any com- 
pulsion." This is substantially a doctrine that western 
powers have an innate right to exercise benevolent compul- 
sion on the Chinese to compel them to receive foreigners 
on terms dictated by the foreigners. 

■ The inunediate evidence of this spirit is the indifference to 
the substantial Chinese interests in Mongolisi and in Man- 
churia. While unready or unwilling to prevent the virtual 
conquest of these provinces from China, the six powers 
pretend to make far-reaching decisions with respect to the 
future government of China. For if you are going to put in 
an administrator to superintend a loan, that means that you 
have a right to keep order and maintain the value of your 
security. You must suppress revolutions — not every revolu- 

/ tion, of course; only such revolutions as you think are unde- 
sirable for your interests. The underlying principle of the 
present Holy Alliance in the East is to keep China weak 
politically, while trying to make her industrially strong; 
and to see that the results of commercial gain shall not get 
out of the control of those who now take responsibility for 
its finances. 

I submit that in such an Holy Alliance the United States 
has no rightful part. It is contrary to a century long policy 



THE NEW HOLY ALLIANCE FOR CHINA 47 

of avoiding combinations with other powers. It is contrary 
to the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine, which was a protest 
against the operations of the old Holy Alliance in America. 
It is contrary to om* policy in regard to the Panama canal: 
this country admitted no European partner in that great 
enterprise. It is contrary to our economic interest, which 
is for a productive China. 

Nor is it necessary for the United States to dictate to 
China in behalf of its own money power. It is no time for 
us, when we are trying to curb corporations which menace 
the existence of democratic government in America, to go 
out into the Orient to use the authority of the United States 
in aid of the projects of similar aggregations of capital. The 
old Holy Alliance failed, and the New Holy Alliance is des- 
tined to a like failure, because it is unnatural and topheavy. 
The United States through the Monroe Doctrine precipitated 
the collapse of the old combination and should stand by 
its doctrine of the independence of nations. 

It is not for us to dictate to other peoples what their 
government shall be; we are not entirely successful in orderly 
and popular government here at home. Is it likely that by 
joining with five other powers, not one of which is sincerely 
sympathetic with our idea of government, we can help the 
Chinese to set up a solid government? To my mind the 
serious question and issue of the moment is: what kind of 
government will be most advantageous to the Chinese? 
No nation, no group of nations, has a right to insist that the 
commercial affairs of another nation shall be regulated for 
the benefit of outsiders. 

The whole scheme really rests upon the supposed funda- 
mental incapacity of the Chinese. That comes with ill 
grace from such moderns as we are. (Many of the Chinese 
were living in cities with an elaborate civilization when 
our Teutonic ancestors were pursuing the aurochs for an 
evening meal and had not so much as heard of the Romans. 
The antiquity of the Chinese is a proof that they have some 
power to make a government for themselves. For their 
isolation they have had excuse: other nations have not 
been kind to them. The Chinese wall, typical in our speech 



v/ 



48 ALBERT BUSHNELL HAET 

of an unreasoning and hurtful barrier, is one of the world's 
greatest achievements because it was successful, because for 
centuries it did keep out those mounted neighbors that were 
such a scourge to China. 

In the long run the six-power system is against the inter- 
ests of the six powers. What will be the effect on China if 
this week or next the European powers are swept into a 
general war? If it were impossible to reinforce the present 
scanty European garrisons how long would Tsintau remain 
German, or Kowloon English, or the Shanghai concessions 
European? If I were a Chinese I would stand as long as I 
lived for the doctrine that my country is entitled to its 
own territory and to its own control. 

So far as the ability of the Chinese to maintain a govern- 
ment is concerned it is not within the compass nor the prov- 
ince of allied nations to alter their circumstances or char- 
acter. Doubtless the governmental conditions are crude, 
clumsy and imperfect; but they will not be improved by a 
six-part tutorship. The Chinese deserve to be taken on 
their merits, as shown by experience; upon their ability or 
inability to maintain a government. 

Hence it would seem in accordance with American policy 
to recognize the republic of China, instead of joining in 
embarrassing it. I do not claim that the Chinese are perfect 
people, or even that they are capable of maintaining a repub- 
lican government; but they have become the greatest poten- 
tial power in Asia. I predict that there will be a Chinese 
nation, a Chinese language and literature, and a Chinese 
influence, quite as long as there is an English or an American 
nation, language and literature. I believe that China is one 
of the prime forces of the world. It is simple morality that 
the United States of America should consider the interests 
of the Chinese in dealing with them as well as the interests 
of our citizens. Proper trade between any two nations is 
mutually profitable and hospitable. America ought to be 
the helpful nation to China, an uplifting and sustaining 
influence in the present great difficulties of that government. 
I believe that it is not our business to be part and parcel of a 
combination founded in part for the protection of Europeans 



THE NEW HOLY ALLIANCE FOR CHINA 49 

in China, but essentially based in selfishness. The com- 
mercial organization of the present Holy Alliance is at bot- 
tom a movement for making money out of the Chinese by 
Europeans and Americans. As a money-making enterprise 
the six-power financial scheme lies outside of our legitimate 
national interests. 



A PLEA FOR FAIR PLAY AND THE RECOGNITION 
OF THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 

By Major Louis Livingston Seaman, M.D., LL.B., F.R.G.S., 
President of the China Society of America 

The problem of the Orient is the problem of the twentieth 
century, and today, China is its key. The most eventful 
year of modern times in the hfe of the Chinese people has 
just passed into history. They have escaped from the des- 
potism of a corrupt monarchy to the freedom of a republic. 
The problems which now confront them are the recognition 
of their government as a republic by foreign nations, and the 
adjustment of their finances. Unless these are arranged to 
the satisfaction of a powerful syndicate of bankers, backed 
by the diplomats of their various countries, it has been inti- 
mated that the partitioning of the country may be appre- 
hended as a probable eventuality. 

It might have been hoped that the carnival of territorial 
lust, which for centm-ies caused untold bloodshed the world 
over, had culminated in the partitioning of Africa — the last 
of the continents to be parceled off by the world's looters, 
who in the division of the spoils, followed, as the robber 
barons of feudal times, 

The good old rule, the simple plan, 

That they should take who have the power, 

And they should keep who can. 

But look at China today — that grand old country, with its 
great wall which for over twenty centuries protected it from 
the hordes of Tartars and Mongols on the north, while its 
Thibetan ranges on the west, and impenetrable forests on 
the south, permitted it to live in peace and tranquillity 
thousands of years, with no fear of molestation by ''foreign 
devils," from land or sea. And in this time the beautiful 
but fallacious philosophy of Confucius, which taught the 

50 



RECOGNITION OF THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 51 

rule of moral suasion rather than that by might, grew until 
its essence was expressed in the proverb, "Better have no 
child than one who is a soldier" — this, too, in a land where it 
is considered a disgrace to die childless. 

And what was the natural result: A condition of insecur- 
ity, of defencelessness, of inability to enforce that first law 
of nature — self-protection — followed, which, when realized 
by the Occidental nations, resulted in their seizing great 
sections of her domains upon trivial excuses, and wringing 
most valuable concessions from her rulers. 

As a direct result of this spoliation, the worm at last 
turned, and the Boxer uprising of 1900 followed, having for 
its declared purpose the forcible expulsion of all foreigners 
from the country, and the recovery by China of her despoiled 
possessions. I say, without fear of contradiction by those 
who are familiar with that issue (and I was there), that that 
uprising was one of the most splendid exhibitions of patriot- 
ism witnessed in modern times. The methods pursued by 
the Chinese, due to the ignorance of their misguided leaders, 
and the horrors that followed, have afforded the theme for 
many a tragic tale and numberless explanatory theories. 
But the plain fact cannot be gainsaid, nor too strongly em- 
phasized, that the essential motive of that propaganda was 
the freeing of the land from the hated foreigners, who, in 
current phrase, had "robbed the people of their country." 

It was then, that in reprisal and revenge, the so-called 
civilized world turned against them. The eight allied armies 
of the "great powers" marched to their capital, slaughtered 
their people, raped their women, looted their temples, their 
treasure and their habitations, committed brutalities that 
would have made Nero envious, and created a sentiment in 
China which fairly crucified Christianity, and which should 
redound to the shame and humiliation of the Christian 
nations whose forces participated in the outrages; but which, 
instead, secured monstrous indemnities and subjected China 
to the most humiUating terms of peace that were ever 
inflicted upon a nation, and that have kept her poverty- 
stricken ever since. America, however, has reason for pride 
in that she waived claims to over half the indemnity, whilst 



52 L. L. SEAMAN 

her great statesman, John Hay, succeeded temporarily in 
preserving the integrity of the country by his splendid 
policy of the "open door." 

Never shall I forget that winter at Ching Wan Tao, follow- 
ing the war, where detachments of the allied army were 
gathered awaiting the fate of China. They reminded me of 
a pack of hungry wolves around the carcass of a dead animal 
—each fearing to set his fangs in the carcass, lest while so 
engaged his neighbor might do the same with him. And 
so during the long negotiations that finally led to the declara- 
tion of peace, the situation continued. 

Four years later I again visited that scene, and there, in 
smaller numbers, were found the troops of many of the na- 
tions still waiting, ready to seize the first opportunity to 
partition the country and to secure their share of the spoil. 
But more pressing engagements were then imminent, involv- 
ing the attention of some of the powers. The Russo- 
Japanese struggle was on, and China was given a temporary 
respite. From that time until the outbreak of the revolution 
which led to the establishment of the Republic, China paid 
the indemnity claims with such regularity that no oppor- 
tunity was found for interference. 

For more than three-quarters of a century, beginning with 
the unrighteous Opium War of England, down to the equally 
unrighteous Boxer War of 1900, and even later, China has 
been subjected to a series of squeezes and despoilment of her 
territory to an extent unequaled in history. The iniquitous 
indemnities wrung from her as the result of the Boxer cam- 
paign would have been reversed, and the countries now receiv- 
ing them would be paying for the outrages committed, had 
right, instead of might, prevailed. The powerful govern- 
ments and financial institutions doing business in the Orient 
have become obsessed with the idea that it is legitimate 
business to ''squeeze" the country, regardless of right or 
justice, and in the present instance they are continuing that 
policy. The six-power group of bankers, backed by the 
diplomacy of the countries they represent, before advocating 
the joint recognition of the Republic, demand first, an exces- 
sive rate of interest for money advanced, and second, terms, 



RECOGNITION OF THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 53 

as to its distribution and expenditure, so humiliating that 
no proud nation could grant them without loss of self- 
respect. If these conditions are not complied with, the 
hidden threat is intimated that the intervention of foreign 
powers and dismemberment of the country may ensue. 
' The effect upon China of the spoliation of her territory 
and finances created among the leading minds of her people 
an appreciation of her weakness, and of the necessity for the 
adoption of Occidental methods for self-protection. They 
saw the absolute imbecility of continuing the policy of the 
Manchu dynasty, and the necessity for a change of govern- 
ment. The efforts of her scholars and statesmen were for a 
long time foiled by the opposition of the Empress Dowager, 
who never hesitated to decapitate those who presented too 
radical programmes for reform. But despite all opposition, 
the new spirit grew and spread all over the country, propa- 
gated by Dr. Sun Yat Sen and other reformers, until the 
revolution followed, and the Republic became a reality. 

The Chinese Republic deserves formal recognition because 
of the character of the revolution which made it possible. 
It obtained the maximum of liberty with the minimum of 
blood-shed. It was an evolution rather than a revolution, 
the most potent factors of which were those of peace, and 
not of war. They were the results of trade with foreign 
nations, the importation of modern inventions, railroads, 
telegraphs, newspapers; the work of Christian missionaries, 
schools and colleges established by them; but, most of all, the 
influence of Chinese students who had been educated in 
foreign universities, and who carried back to their native land 
the high ideals of Occidental government. In comparison 
with the epoch-making wars for freedom in Occidental lands 
— the French Revolution, England's fight for Magna Charta, 
or our own great seven years' struggle for Independence — 
the Chinese Revolution was almost bloodless. It is stated 
that the total mortality of the war which secured the emanci- 
pation of 400,000,000 of people, was less than the number 
lost in the battle of the Wilderness, or in single conflicts 
in the war now raging in the Balkans. 

The moderation shown by the successful leaders to their 



54 L. L. SEAMAN 

late rulers was another striking characteristic. Instead of 
the guillotine or exile, they were retired with liberal pensions, 
and allowed to retain their empty titles. The leaders en- 
joined upon their followers the protection of life and property, 
both commercial and missionary, and these orders were 
strictly obeyed. 

A people who carried to a successful termination such a 
revolution, deserve the respect and recognition of the world. 
There are many qualities inherent in the Chinese nature 
which entitle the present government to immediate recogni- 
tion. The enemies of China today forget the traditions of 
the race — that China was old when Chaldea and Babylon 
were young, that she saw the rise and fall of Grecian and 
Roman civilization, and that she has maintained the integ- 
rity of her government and territory ever since; that her 
scholars discovered the compass and invented the intellec- 
tual game of chess, when our ancestors in Europe were grovel- 
ing in the darkness of mediaevalism; that she produced her 
own science, literature, art, philosophy and religion, whose 
founder, Confucius, five hundred years before the birth 
of Christ, expounded the doctrine of Christianity in the 
saying: "Do not do unto others what you would not have 
others do unto you." They forget that for nearly a thousand 
years China has been nearer a democracy in many features of 
its government than any other government then in exist- 
ence. The fundamental unit of democracy, the foundation 
upon which our own government rests, is embodied in the 
principle of the New England town meeting. All authori- 
ties on democracy, De Tocqueville, Bryce and the Compte 
de Paris, agree in this. 

In China, local government is, in practically all its features, 
and for centuries has been, controlled by local authorities. 
The officials of the central government never interfere with 
the local administration, except for the collection of revenues 
allocated to imperial requirements. It is the opinion of 
many authorities that the government of China has given 
more happiness and more individual liberty to a greater 
mass of humanity than any other government in the 
world. 



RECOGNITION OP THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 55 

The Cliinese have never sought territorial aggrandize- 
V ment, but have loved the paths of peace where the law of 
moral suasion, and not of might, ruled. They possess quali- 
ties of industry, economy, temperance and tranquillity, 
unsurpassed by any nation on earth. With these qualities 
they are in the great race of the survival of the fittest to 
stay. They are to be feared by foreign nations more for 
their virtues than for their vices; and in their present struggle 
for the maintenance of liberty, they deserve our earnest 
sympathy and assistance in the solution of problems, seem- 
ingly so different, but inherently so similar to our own. 

The noble qualities of the race are illustrated in the leaders 
of the present movement. President Yuan Shih Kai is a ^^ 
masterful statesman who inspires confidence in all who know 
him. Few other men in history have had such kaleidoscopic 
changes of fortune, and few men have met them with greater 
courage or possessed the transcendent abilities that lift one 
so high above the common level. The resignation of the 
provisional presidency of the Republic by Dr. Sun Yat Sen 
was "an act worthy of the finest traditions of patriotism in 
any land." The National Assembly in accepting it, said: 
''His act has afforded the world an example of purity of 
purpose and self-sacrifice unparalleled in history." 

The Republic is an established institution of over a year's 
standing. An able statesman has been duly elected as presi- 
dent and the other machinery of its government is in opera- 
tion. It has undertaken to observe all treaties, and to dis- 
charge all the international obligations of its predecessor. 
No one will deny that there are serious military, financial 
and political problems still to be solved, but they are matters 
of purely domestic concern. They do not alter the fact, 
which is involved in recognition by other nations, that China 
has changed her form of government, and that her represen- 
tative and duly accredited agent before the world is no 
longer an emperor, but a president. In the analogous case 
of the recognition of Brazil in 1890, Senator Turpie said: 
''The success of a revolutionary movement is in itself a '''' 
statement to the world that a majority of a nation has 
chosen a change of government; the following existence of 



56 L. L. SEAMAN 

the revolutionary government, and under its authority, will 
come the question of the constitution, laws, statutes and 
ordinances of the new government, but these questions are 
wholly internal ones." 

Many authorities on international law support the legal 
status of the present government. Hall says: ''So long as a 
person or a body of persons are indisputably in possession 
of the required powers, foreign states treat with them as the 
organ of the state; but so soon as they cease to be the actual 
organ, foreign states cease dealing with them; and it is usual, 
if the change is unquestionably final, to open relations with 
their ; uccessors, independently of whether it has been ef- 
fected constitutionally." Wheaton defines a de facto gov- 
ernment as "One which is really in possession of the powers 
of sovereignty, although the possession may be wrongful 
or precarious." Phillimore states, "That the recognition of 
a new government should be preceded by an absolute 
bona fide possession of independence as a separate kingdom, 
not the enjoyment of perfect and undisturbed internal tran- 
quillity (a test too severe for many of the oldest kingdoms), 
but there should be the existence of a government — acknowl- 
edged by the people over whom it is set, and ready to 
acknowledge and competent to discharge international 
obligations." The present conditions in China satisfy 
these definitions of a de facto government. 

But the Republic of China is not only the de facto govern- 
ment, it is also the de jure government. As stated by Dr. 
Chao-Chu Wu, son of ex-Minister Wu Ting Fang, "the Man- 
chu rulers were not illegally driven from the throne, but they 
abdicated of themselves, and with their last act legalized 
the Republic. The abdication edict transfers the sovereignty 
hitherto vested in the emperor alone, to the people; it legal- 
izes the Republic, and, what is more to the purpose, it con- 
stitutes a recognition of the new government by the sov- 
ereign power." Hall says: "Recognition by a parent state, 
by implying an abandonment of all pretensions over the 
insurgent community, is more conclusive evidence of inde- 
pendence than recognition by a third power, and it removes 
all doubt from the minds of other governments as to the 



RECOGNITION OF THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 57 

propriety of recognition by themselves." When the fallen 
government of China has itself recognized the new govern- 
ment, what reason is there for other governments to delay? 

For the reasons enumerated — the status of the present 
government of China, the virtues of the Chinese race, the 
character of the Revolution in which these virtues have found 
their expression in bringing about the change of government, 
for all these reasons, the Republic of China is deserving of 
immediate recognition by the nations of the world. But 
there are special reasons why recognition should be accorded 
by our government first of all. 

Special obligations are laid upon us of the United States 
by our position in the eyes of the world as the most powerful 
republic in existence, and one of the oldest. The President 
of the United States is rightly regarded as "the champion 
and exponent of that form of government consecrated by 
the blood of our Revolutionary fathers." Our own republi- 
can principles justify China in looking to us for sympathy 
and support in this hour of crisis and of need. 

Such an expectation is warranted by our deahngs with 
other nations. Numerous precedents might be cited to 
show that it has always been the policy of the United States 
government to recognize the existence of a government 
which was capable of maintaining itself. Our relations with 
France illustrate this. On November 7, 1792, in reply to a 
letter from Gouverneur Morris, then American Minister to 
Paris, describing the bloody revolution which had just been 
effected in that capital, Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of 
State, wrote as follows: "It accords with our principles to 
acknowledge any government to be rightful which is formed 
by the will of the nation substantially declared." Later he 
added: "We surely cannot deny to any nation that right 
whereon our own government is founded — that every one 
may govern itself according to whatever form it pleases, and 
change these forms at its own will; and that it may transact 
its business with foreign nations through whatever organ it 
thinks proper, whether king, convention, assembly, com- 
mittee, president, or anything else it may choose. The will 
of the nation is the only thing essential to be regarded." 



58 L. L. SEAMAN 

The establishment of the Second RepubUc occurred oh the 
24th of February, 1848, and less than a week after our Minis- 
ter to France, Mr. Rush, presented the formal congratula- 
tions of our government. Mr. Buchanan, in transmitting 
to Mr. Rush a letter of credence to the French Republic, said : 
"In its intercourse with foreign nations, the government of 
the United States has, from its origin, always recognized the 
de facto governments. We recognize the right of all nations 
to create and reform their political institutions according 
to their own will and pleasure. We do not go behind the 
existing government to involve ourselves in the question of 
its legitimacy. It is sufficient for us to know that a govern- 
ment exists capable of maintaining itself; and then its recog- 
nition on our part inevitably follows." Even as late as 
September 8, 1900, Mr. Hill, acting Secretary of State, 
sent to Mr. Hart, United States Minister at Bogota, the 
following instructions: ''The policy of the United States, 
announced and practiced upon occasion for more than a 
century, has been and is to refrain from acting upon con- 
flicting claims to the de jure control of the executive power of 
a foreign state; but to base the recognition of a foreign gov- 
ernment solely upon its de facto ability to hold the reins of 
administrative power." In withholding recognition from 
the Republic of China, the present administration is depart- 
ing from the policy of the great founders of our nation. 

There are questions in expediency and advantage as well 
as of principle in this matter of recognition. We may well 
consider what some of these results would be. First, China 
would be encouraged and strengthened in her efforts for 
reform and education. Evidences of the educational awaken- 
ing are coming from every part of the land. The Canton 
Christian college may be taken as typical. The number of 
students in that institution has increased from 256 to 418 in 
one term, and the Chinese residents there have recently 
given over $80,000 (equivalent to many times that in pur- 
chasing power here) for new buildings and equipment of 
the college. The new Commissioner of Education in 
Kwang-Tung Province has secured the appropriation of 



RECOGNITION OF THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 59 

$100,000 gold for the education abroad of the students of 
the province. 

A second result of recognition would be the stimulation of 
trade between China and the nations of the West. When 
the international relations of China are restored to normal 
condition, trade, which has already regained most of the 
ground lost during the disturbances, will assuredly rapidly 
increase. By recognizing the Republic the powers will, 
without distinction, confer a boon on the business commu- 
nities of their respective nations. Missionaries and other 
representatives of western nations in China, also, would be 
benefited by the recognition of the Republic. Though the 
Revolution has been guarded from assuming any anti- 
foreign or anti-missionary character, until perfect order is 
established there must be risk for foreigners traveling in the 
interior. Dr. Wu states: "It is within the power of the 
foreign countries to reinforce the hand of the government, 
to extend to it moral support, and give it added prestige 
to hasten the complete restoration of order, and to insure the 
safety of their citizens and subjects throughout the vast 
Republic." 

The greatest advantage to be gained by the speedy recog- 
nition by all nations would be the prevention of intervention 
on the part of some which are only waiting an opportunity to 
appropriate Chinese territory, just as they did with the conti- 
nent of Africa some thirty years ago. The partitioning of 
China would be a crime even greater than the partitioning of 
Poland, and one fraught with far more serious consequences 
to the human race as a whole. 

The Chinese Revolution was not a coup d'etat, without 
likelihood of permanence; the old monarchy is hopelessly 
dead. The Revolution was complete, and peace reigns 
throughout the land. The new government is without 
opposition. It is confronted with many difficulties, but 
they do not spring from the attachment of people to the 
departed monarchy. As stated by Dr. Morrison in the 
London Times, when referring to the danger of China's 
splitting up, "Where is the line of cleavage? Both parties 



60 L. L. SEAMAN 

in China are equally republican. Those who allege that 
President Yuan is assuming a dictatorship are ignoring the 
facts of his career." And to the critics who charge that the 
President's Council is composed of hostile factions, whose 
quarrels threaten the continuance of the Republic, he says: 
''Nothing could be more misleading. These parties differ 
in their programmes as political parties do in all countries, 
but all are equally republican." To those who think it is a 
reproach and a danger that the new men active in the gov- 
ernment are inexperienced, he replies, that the difference 
can be shown by comparing them with the "corrupt princes 
and degraded eunuchs who were in power under the Manchu 
dynasty." 

Given recognition by foreign governments, freedom from 
overt acts of predatory powers, and the right to increase her 
own customs, now limited to 5 per cent — a right wrung from 
her by foreigners to secure their unholy indemnities — China 
will pay all her obligations, no matter how unrighteous. 
The ruling characteristic of the Chinaman is honesty. He 
never repudiates his financial obligations. 

I hold in my hand a Chinese bank note for a thousand 
cash issued by the great Ming Emperor Hung Wu, in the 
year 1367. It is the most ancient piece of financial paper 
in existence, excepting some duplicates, one of which I 
presented to the British Museum several years ago. It is 
three hundred years older than a somewhat similar looking 
note for which the British Museum paid Pope Hennessy 
500 pounds, and which, until this was discovered, was sup- 
posed to be the oldest in the world. The lower panel con- 
tains the following, as translated by Professor H. B. Morse, 
Commissioner of Customs and Inspectorate General of 
Customs of China: "The Imperial Board of Revenue, hav- 
ing memoriahzed the Throne, has received the Imperial 
sanction for the issue of Government notes of the Ming 
Empire, to circulate on the same footing as standard cash. 
To counterfeit is death. The informant will receive 250 
taels of silver, and in addition, the entire property of the 
criminal. — Signed, Hung Wu." A seal in vermilion bears 
in character the legend: "Seal for circulating Government 



RECOGNITION OF THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 61 

Notes." It is shown as an authentic proof of the antiquity 
of the Chinaman's knowledge of matters financial, at a time 
when the ancestors of the six powers syndicate were groping 
in the darkness of feudalism — matters in which the China- 
man has always borne the unique distinction of being the 
soul of honor. 

The integrity of the Chinese as a people is proverbial. 
Their former despotic government, despite its innate cor- 
ruption, never failed to observe its financial obligations to 
its former creditors, however unjustly incurred. The gov- 
ernment of the Republic has solemnly undertaken to faith- 
fully execute all the obligations to the foreign powers, under 
existing treaties, notwithstanding the onerous burden en- 
tailed upon the people, and which, considering their enforced 
origin, might with some reason have justified repudiation. 
Apart from the credit for past performances, faithfully 
observed, and the normal revenues from trade, commerce 
and the usual taxes, the natural resources of the land are 
incalculable. Of their development, a beginning, by modern 
methods, has only yet been made; but where it has been, 
every encouragement exists for extensive exploitation to the 
great advantage of the people, as well as of capital involved 
in such industrial enterprises. The extension of railways 
also affords scope for large investments, which are attract- 
ing attention in all quarters, to provide means of internal 
commerce, now carried on by most primitive methods. These 
and other considerations justify recourse to the bankers of 
the world for assistance on equitable conditions toward 
their development. 

With such a reputation for honor, and such tempting 
opportunities for the successful employment of capital in her 
domain, why should China be forced to accept humiliating 
and ignominious terms to obtain credit — terms never before 
demanded of any other nation? Consider Japan — that other 
great star of the Orient — whose natural resources are incom- 
parably less than those of China. When her very existence 
as a nation was at stake in a war with one of the most power- 
ful countries of Europe, it was my privilege as well as pleas- 
ure to appear with Count Kaneko before a syndicate of 



62 L. L. SEAMAN 

bankers who were considering the advisabiUty and risk of 
underwriting her loan — and to urge its acceptance. I had 
seen the Japanese army in action and beheved in its final 
triumph, and that her people would ultimately pay her 
obligations. But were any such monstrous conditions de- 
manded from her by the underwriters as are now sought by 
the sextuple syndicate in dealing with China? On the con- 
trary, Japan secured the money necessary to carry on her 
campaign on easy terms, although her success in the titanic 
struggle in which she was then engaged was, at that time, by 
no means a certainty. 

In the case of China, peace reigns, and yet, before the 
^ great financiers consent to the issuance of a loan, it is asserted 
that they demand the right of a close supervision of its 
expenditure, that it be ear-marked for purposes acceptable 
to them, that it shall not be available for military or naval 
defence, so essential for the future protection of the country; 
that no other loans or obligations shall be made by China 
without the consent of the syndicate, and that certain rev- 
enues be allotted for its security. These terms the states- 
men of China refused and they have had the temerity to 
negotiate an independent loan for $50,000,000 in opposition 
to the will of the six-power syndicate. 

On the question of China's finances, the London Times 
said, after the floating of the first instalment of the $50,000,- 
000 loan, which was half of the sum, that it ''rejoices that 
the British people have manifested a different spirit from 
that of their government." It condemns the government 
/ for backing up the monopoly; it declares that the six-power 
group had ''sought to set up a monopoly in China under the 
aegis of international diplomacy." It also declares that the 
liabilities of the country to June next, including indemnity 
arrears, will amount to 10,000,000 sterling and that "much 
is dependent upon the generosity of the foreign governments 
and the banking interests." 

According to Dr. Morrison, the political adviser of the 
Chinese government, China has entered upon a new era of 
prosperity, and by the skill and judgment of her financiers 
has shaken herself free from international complications. 



RECOGNITION OF THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 63 

The London Morning Post (Conservative) remarks gloom- 
ily: ''The prospectus of the new Chinese loan has been 

duly issued The British government has been 

roundly accused of lending itself to a plot for placing 
China at the mercy of a syndicate of greedy financiers, and 
for establishing a degrading system of foreign control over 
her internal affairs. The breaking off of the negotiations 
between the Chinese government and the six-power banking 
group and the conclusion of the loan agreement with the 
London financiers have been hailed as a destruction of the 
selfish monopoly which was strangling the freedom of the 
young Republic." The London Da% iVew^s continues, ''It 
is a battle of giants, for behind the six powers there is a 
greedy banking monopoly which has hitherto been unchal- 
lenged, and behind this monopoly there is a complicated 
network of international intrigue, partly German, partly 
American, partly Russian and partly Japanese," and I think 
we may add, largely English. 
^ On October 30, 1912, one of the interested powers, Russia, 
proposed that a joint and pre-emptory demand be made upon 
China for the immediate payment of arrears in the Boxer 
indemnity, the sum amounting to $50,000,000. It was pri- 
vately intimated, and not officially denied, that this move- 
ment, made on October 30, was intended as an emphatic 
rebuke to the Chinese for their temerity in contracting loans 
with independent bankers; disregarding the warning of the 
powers, and their rejection of the proposed loan by the six- 
power syndicate. It is stated on high authority that the 
powers of Europe look favorably upon this proposal. In 
taking the initiative in the movement to compel China to 
accept the proposal of the six-power syndicate, and the 
refusal on China's part to accept the terms, Russia, as stated 
in reports received on November 7, has been led to negotiate 
with one of China's provinces, Mongolia, a treaty, signed on 
November 3, by which she agrees to aid Mongolia to main- 
tain the autonomous government which she has established, 
and to support her right to maintain a national army, and 
to exclude both the presence of Chinese troops and the coloni- 
zation of her territory by the Chinese. 



\y 



v/ 



64 L. L. SEAMAN 

In this act Russia is following the lead of her ally, Great 
Britain, who not long ago proclaimed what amounts to a 
protectorate over the territory of Thibet, just as, on a recent 
occasion. Great Britain joined Russia in their monstrous and 
disgraceful treatment of Persia. It is the consummation 
of the policy of "squeeze" that has been carried on ever 
since China opened her doors, at the mouth of the cannon, 
to the crime of the century, the opium trade of England, 
and later, to so-called modern civilization. 

Thus it seems that the vivisection of the sick man of the 
Far East may proceed merrily, without consideration for the 
interests or sentiments of the patient under the scalpel. 
This at the moment seems to be the lamentable result of the 
action of the six-power syndicate. It seems apparent that 
the famous combination has signally failed in its financial 
policy, despite governmental assistance, and that nothing 
has been gained by the delay in the recognition of the 
Republic. But what has been lostf 

By formally recognizing the new government as soon as 
it had demonstrated its right to such recognition, America 
would have followed the splendid traditions of our forebears, 
who enunciated and practiced the laws of justice and liberty 
which made our country great, and from whose teachings 
we have departed too far. We would have had the proud 
distinction of being the first to welcome the Republic in its 
hour of trial. We would have secured the eternal friendship 
and respect of a nation, which, no matter what adversity 
it may yet have to face, is destined to be one of the greatest 
and grandest on earth. We would have inmieasurably 
increased our prestige in the Orient, and possibly, by pro- 
claiming the policy of "hands off" and the "open door" in 
China, averted the tragedy that now seems almost inevitable. 

Is there anyone present who believes that if John Hay 
had been in the Department of State during the past year, the 
republic of China would not have been recognized long ago? 
Had his policy been followed directly after the abdication of 
the Manchu dynasty, China, in the opinion of well-informed 
authorities, would have escaped many of the dangers now 
menacing her. Time was, in the history of American diplo- 



RECOGNITION OF THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 65 

macy, when our Executive acted upon the recognition of 
downtrodden nations which had emancipated themselves 
from tyranny and estabUshed repubUcan forms of govern- 
ment, without consultation or dictation from Lombard or 
Wall Street. The majority of our people are, and from the 
first have been, in sincere sympathy with China in her 
struggle for liberty. Is their will to be carried out or is 
liberty, and opportunity, to be throttled and made subser- 
vient to a group of capitalists who seek to monopolize the 
privilege of dictatorship? 

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey. 
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay. 



THE GENESIS OF THE REPUBLICAN REVOLUTION 

IN CHINA FROM A SOUTH CHINA 

STANDPOINT 

By John Stuart Thomson, sometime Agent at Hong Kong, 

China, of the Pacific Mail and Toyo Kisen Kaisha 

Trans-Pacific Steamship Companies 

Many have thought of, many have spoken on the Chi- 
nese revolution, but each onlooker probably sees it in slightly 
varying lights, as the matter has very many sides. With 
your permission I will add a few statements, trjdng to out- 
line the genesis of the astonishing movement as it appeared 
to me, and selecting some salient points while the revolution 
was in progress. I lived longest in south China, which 
section has thought longest on revolution, and I will there- 
fore speak largely as a neighbor of the southern Chinese, 
but I will always remember that every "National" has his 
inalienable right to free opinion and his opinion and per- 
sonality I have hearty respect for. ''A man's a man for 
a' that!" 

A republic in place of the oldest monarchy ! Preposterous. 
It would involve making a yellow man think as a white 
man, and that had never occurred. It would involve free 
intercourse with the whole wide world, and China had 
opposed such an innovation stubbornly for 400 years. It 
meant that the proudest and most self-contained nation 
should treat others as equals and interchange with them. It 
involved throwing 4000 years of continuous history and 
agglomerated pride and precedent to the winds, and humbly 
beginning anew as a tyro for a while. It meant the dealing 
with 400,000,000 kings, instead of one, and asking, ''My 
lord! what is your will." An educational system 2000 
years old to be at once forgotten! a religion 5000 years old 
at least, whereby every man had his own god (his father) 
to be made as cheap as the paltry sacrifices of wine, rice 

66 



THE REPUBLICAN REVOLUTION IN CHINA 67 

and the painted stick of Confucianism, were in reality! 
The taking up of individual and national responsibility 
for 400,000,000 people, and entrance upon a wide path of 
world-influence, with its divided shame and fame. The 
taking and giving of blows for wrong and right. The giving 
up of the triple eternal Nirvana of father, self and son, in 
exchange for an exciting role limited to 55 crowded years 
in the individual. The scale of the action! A land as 
large as all Europe, and a people as numerous as the Cau- 
casic race. The thunderous knock on the long-locked doors 
of science and medicine by 400,000,000 people, who had 
bowed to idol and charm alone. It shook the world. It 
was pregnant with Paradisial possibilities for mankind, 
because of the vastness of the movement, and the depth of 
its wellspring. The launching of this new Leviathan ship 
of state could not but raise a wave that would lift the 
already floating hulks of Europe and America, and give 
them added impetus, though temporary alarm. The 
rearrangement of commerce, manufacture, labor, finance, 
taxation, learning, agriculture, art, and possibly religion for 
the whole world. The adding of the most difficult language 
to the tongues and pens of men, and the call on the English 
speech to rise once more greater than the mighty stranger, 
or pale before the light of his march. The challenge to Pal- 
estine's Bible to conquer by truth and love, or retreat with 
half a world lost. The uprising again of the yellow ghosts 
of Kublai Khan, Batu, Timurlane, and the Khans of the 
Golden Horde. What would be the Caucasian's answer to 
Emperor William's question "The Yellow Peril?" It will 
be remembered that the brilliant Kaiser once painted a 
picture showing the nations of Europe gathering to defend 
the cross of Calvary and civilization against an incendiary 
Buddha lowering in the eastern sky. Would the stranger 
within the gates be protected, even while republican and 
imperialist fought out their argument? Would leadership 
arise, and would the great Mongolian mass be intellect- 
ualized now that it was energized? Since the vast body was 
suddenly displaced, would it henceforward move by mere 
gravity, or sympathetic volition? Could it collectivize and 



68 JOHN STUART THOMSON 

not disintegrate? What would be the effect on the scores 
of trembhng thrones, where Romanoff, Hapsburg, Savoy, 
HohenzoUern, Ottoman, BiUiken, etc. said they ruled by 
''divine right," which is quite a different thing from noble 
England's ''constitutional right." Dr. Sun Yat Sen and 
the Chinese republicans sent out this challenge: "Tien ming 
wu chang" (the divine right lasts not forever). All these 
questions presented themselves when the reformers startled 
the world with the announcement that there was to be a 
republic in China. It was to be a republic — not a monarchy 
— said even those Chinese who had been educated in Japan. 
Had there been no abatement of the opium habit through 
America's leadership of sentiment, and Britain's sacrifice 
of revenue from 1909 to 1911, there could have been no 
rebellion as early as 1911. The reform cleared the befogged 
heads of the nation, added a million men to agitation, and 
furnished a hundred milhon dollars directly and indirectly 
toward the independence of the agitators. How great a 
stone America and Britain set rolling in that Opium Con- 
ference of 1909 at Shanghai. 

s^ The great revolution of October, 1911, did not drop as a 
bolt from a clear sky. The clouds had been gathering, 
though many at home and abroad did not, or would not 
see them.^ In September, 1911, the Imperial Viceroy of 
Canton, Chang Ming Chi, sent spies along the new Canton- 
Hong Kong Railway to apprehend smugglers of arms. In 
the same month, troops under the command of Marshal 
Lung Chai Kwong suddenly surrounded the office of Shat 
Pat Po newspaper at Canton, and arrested several reformers, 
who had been blacklisted for opinion's sake. General Luk 
Wing Ting of Kwangsi province came down the Si Kiang 
(West River) in September 1911 in the gunboat Po Pik to 
Canton, and took back with him from the Canton arsenal, 
machine guns and ammunition to attack the "anarchists," 
as the Manchus persistently called all reformers. In the 
month previous the Ministry of Posts and Communica- 
tions at Peking stopped the use of private codes, so as to 
censor messages to the reformers. Several viceroys, in secret 
sympathy with the reformers, had as early as August, 1911, 



THE REPUBLICAN REVOLUTION IN CHINA 69 

wired for gunboats, so as to disperse the fleet from the 
Yangtse basin, where the revolution was to strike, and the 
largest cruiser, the splendid Hai CM, well known in New 
York, these viceroys suggested should be sent to King 
George's coronation review at Spithead. Even as far back 
as July, 1907, the Manchu government approached the 
powers, requesting that they make espionage on arms con- 
signed to south China. Rather to our amusement, they 
used to arrive at Hong Kong as boxed pipes, condensers, 
plumber's supplies, bar iron, crockery, tracts, etc., anything 
but guns, but that was the humor of the freight classifica- 
tion which the shippers used. In December, 1906, the 
scholars of the Middle Class in Wuchow, Kiangsi province, 
at the head of navigation on the West River, decided to 
cut off their queues, and adopted khaki uniform, military 
drill and track races. They were independently preparing 
for strenuous times five years before the outbreak, and these 
boys were found in the first line of the attack in October, 
1911, up at Hankow, led by Colonel Wen, who had gradu- 
ated from West Point Military Academy in America in 
1909. In August, 1911, the Hong Kong and Shanghai 
Banking Corporation reported that a large part of its $9,- 
000,000 gold note issue was being held, instead of circulated 
by the Chinese of Kwangtung and other southern provinces. 
This hoarding of safe securities always indicates lack of 
faith as to the business and poUtical future. 

The celebrated Manchu, Tuan Fang, Director General 
of Railways was ordered by the Ministry of Communica- 
tions to proceed to Canton and Kung Yik, the new town of 
the Americanized Chinese, in August, 1911, to 'Opacify the 
people." Tuan replied that he would not go and gave as 
his excuse: '^ Canton is infested with anarchism." In the 
same month, the Regent, Prince Chun, asked the veteran 
Prince Ching to recommend an energetic general to be sent 
to quell disturbances in Kwangtung province, and the Tar- 
tar General, Fung Shan, was sent. Spying was not uncom- 
mon, impersonators going to a province ahead of new 
appointees, and reciting a record at the Yamen which seemed 
to identify them. In August, 1911, the Cabinet at Peking 



^ 



70 JOHN STUART THOMSON 

decided to send photographs of new officials in a sealed envel- 
ope, so as to prevent this impersonating. As an indication 
of the new spirit which was moving among the Chinese of 
Canton for better things at this time, take the inception of 
the model town of Heungchow. Chinese returned from 
America, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, could not 
bear the municipal restraint of the old Chinese city. They 
chose a site ten miles up the inner harbor of Macao. Dredg- 
ing and a breakwater were begun for a harbor. Broad 
streets, drains, fine stores, temples, poUce and fire stations 
and equipment, water works, libraries, parks, reforestation 
in tree denuded China, Chamber of Commerce, tramways, 
electricity and gas, hospitals, schools, theatres, detached 
homes with gardens, launch and steamship lines, and a free 
port, all were in the scheme. When a government permits 
monopoly of food, and riots result because of justice 
ineffectually exerted, history shows that the government is 
about to fall. I instance the fierce Hangchow rice riots 
of July, 1906, under the leadership of Hung Pang (Red Asso- 
ciation), and the Changsha rice riots of 1910, when Yale 
College in China was barely saved from the conflagration, 
in the very district which in 1911 was swept by the high 
tide of the revolution. In 1906 text books were issued to 
the modern schools of some of the southern provinces which 
contained a caricature of China, not as the ''Middle King- 
dom" of old, but as the ''Middle morsel," from which all 
the nations took a bite. The intent of course was to arouse 
resentful patriotism in place of the old inert pride. Many 
of these school boys enlisted in the two bravest corps of 
the republicans: the "Dare to Die" band, and the "Bomb 
Throwers" regiment. In April, 1911, the rebels, under two 
of Dr. Sun Yat Sen's heutenants, Hu Wai Sang and Wu 
Sum, operating in Kwangtung province, issued to the world 
almost the identical manifesto that President Sun and For- 
eign Secretary Wu Ting Fang issued in January, 1912. 
Desperate fighting took place, and had the rebels been suffi- 
ciently supplied with money and arms, the republic would 
have been declared at Canton in April instead of at Wuchang 
and Nanking in November, 1911. The United States gun- 



THE REPUBLICAN REVOLUTION IN CHINA 71 

boat Wilmington, and British gunboats like the Moorhen were 
rushed to Shameen island, Canton, to protect foreigners if 
need should arise in the excitement. Admiral Li, who was 
killed in the October revolution, was barely able to conquer 
this April revolution in Kwantung and Fukien provinces. 

Nearly all the missions were informed by Chinese students 
and friends many months previous to the revolution, that 
serious and continued disturbances would occur. The Chi- 
nese saw that individualism had arisen in America and Eng- 
land and was battUng with the privileged. Individualism 
at last arose in old China, and resented in this rebellion the 
quietism taught by the superstition of Taoism, the resigna- 
tion of Buddhism and the obedience of Confucianism. 
"I am not a clan; I am a man;" ''Homo sum, Humani nihil 
a me alienum puto" said the ambitious Chinese, as he saw 
the new ray of hope. American diplomacy was not alto- 
gether uniformed or unprepared. The American fleet was 
made the largest foreign fleet in Chinese waters in the first 
month of the revolution. Admiral Murdock having the 
cruisers Saratoga (the converted New York of Spanish War 
fame), Albany, New Orleans, Wilmington, the gunboats 
Helena, El Cano, Villalohos, Samar, the monitor Monterey, 
and the destroyers Barry, Decatur, etc. As far back as 
June 3, 1910, a year and four months before the revolution, 
the Shanghai News printed the following article: ''All the; 
legations and consuls have received anonymous letters from 
friendly revolutionaries in Shanghai, containing the warn- 
ing that an extensive anti-dynastic uprising is imminent. 
If they do not assist the Manchus, foreigners are not to 
be harmed." It was diflEicult to hold the widespread feeling 
in restraint. In August, 1911, a rebellion broke out at 
Sining in far western Kansu province. The leader was 
given the name "Chiu Shih Wang" (Savior of his Country). 
Rich men cornered the rice supply in the flooded Yang 
Tze valley, and food riots broke out all along the river in 
August, 1911. On August 23, 1911, rebels boarded a Chi- 
nese gunboat on the romantic Si Kiang (West River) near 
Canton, shooting the commander, and seizing the arms and 
ammunition. On September 1, the Navy Department 



\y 



72 JOHN STUART THOMSON 

strengthened the patrol of Kwangtung province waters, so 
as to stop the smuggling of arms, and the Army Board 
required miners to get permits to import dynamite, as they 
feared that the ''anarchists" were importing the explosive. 
The awful floods and famines of 1910-11 in the basins of 
the Yang Tze River, the Hwei River, and Grand Canal 
had created much criticism of the government, which failed 
to alleviate suffering which their neglect had caused, and 
the famine stricken were willing to fight, because an army 
has a commissariat at least! ''Every one that was in dis- 
tress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that 
was discontented, escaped to the cave of AduUam." News- 
papers, such as the oldest reform journal, the "Shen Pao" 
of Shanghai, related horrible illegal tortures of the "third 
degree" used by Manchuized officials. 

Tin was largely financing the propaganda, the 400,000 
Chinese tin merchants and miners of Singapore, Penang, 
etc. in the Straits Settlements being the largest contributors. 
Following them came the 100,000 American Chinese, and the 
50,000 AustraUan Chinese. Even in 1898, Li Hung Chang 
was known to declare at Canton that it was not impos- 
sible that the spread of the new education would overturn 
the Manchu dynasty, of which he, a Chinese from Hofei 
in Nganwhei province, had been the strongest prop among 
the viceroys for forty-five years^l Superstition was not inac- 
tive. Halley's comet flared in the sky. It had shone when 
Caesar fell; when Jerusalem fell; when Italy fell before 
Attila; when Enghsh Harold fell before Wilham the Con- 
queror; when Rome fell in England; when Quebec fell before 
Wolfe, and now its awful flame must surely prophesy the 
fall of the Manchu dynasty. Omens were recited that red 
snow (snow and loess) had fallen in Honan province, and 
that the Hangchow tidal bore had risen 20 feet, broke over 
the bank, and poured water into the first gallery of the fam- 
ous Haining pagoda. This always meant the fall of the 
dynasty, for had it not happened on the night the beloved 
Mings fell, and when the scholarly Sungs fell? As with 
civil servants in some other countries, the Manchuized Civil 
Service of mandarins acted as though they were the govern- 



THE REPUBLICAN REVOLUTION IN CHINA 73 

ors and not the servants of the people, by alloting to them- 
selves high salaries and peculations. The year before the 
revolution, the land tax yielded about $150,000,000. Only 
$30,000,000 reached the government exchequer. The Chi- 
nese held the Manchus responsible for this criminal neglect 
of audit, for at least $100,000,000 should have reached 
the imperial and provincial exchequers. That would have 
allowed $50,000,000 for the expected peculation of that kind 
of office holders who believe that "public office is a private 
graft." The same peculation occurred in returning the salt 
gabelle of $20,000,000. In September 1911, the month pre- 
ceding the great revolution, the Chi Feng Po, a native paper 
of Peking, reported that all wages were in arrears, and that 
even the tea coolies had humorously pasted an anonymous 
sheet on the Imperial Controller's door: ''Not even a shadow 
of our wages yet: why; whyf There was some grinding 
of teeth behind the grin; there was more than humor in 
this facetiousness. Taxes were increased on long-suffering 
Kwangtung province; the brick kilns of Kochau, the silk 
sheds of Namhoi, the tea houses, and even the temple keepers 
being assessed "all the taxed would bear." I will instance 
a representative revolt. On September 6, 1911, the bonze 
at Shek Lung, near Canton, organized a revolt among the 
worshippers at his temple, which was as significant as if 
the rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in Worcester, in 
disgust with conditions, gave arms to his congregation and 
led them against the citadel of the powers that be. The 
Chinese mob demolished the municipal Yamen, the police 
station, and government distilleries, abbatoir, and fish mar- 
ket. As far back as 1898, the Emperor Kwang Hsu by edict 
declared that the lottery at Canton should pay one-third 
of the up-keep of the far-away Peking University. There 
is a unique effigy of a kneeling figure erected in the Kwan 
clan temple at San Wui near Canton, which is and has been 
whipped by the worshippers to commemorate the defection 
of a member to the Manchu government's railway and 
tax program. There was always ill feeling between Peking 
and far away Kwangtung province, the Manchu and Man- 
chuized viceroys often joking at Peking, when they were 



74 JOHN STUART THOMSON 

ordered to assume charge at the Yamen at Canton: "Well, 
I'm off to boss Miaotszes (barbarians), which the refined 
and commercial Cantonese certainly were not. This super- 
ciliousness was deeply resented, in the south. 

Repeated complaint had been made that an unrepresen- 
tative Manchu government gave away concessions right and 
left to foreigners, and that when these concessions were 
recalled or bought out, owing to the outraged patriotic feel- 
ing in the southern and central provinces, the foreigner in 
instances charged immense sums for good will and franchise 
in addition to his outlay and interest. I will not recite 
instances which I have on record, as it is the system that 
I am denouncing, not the persons. The Chinese rightly 
said, if we look at the matter charitably with his eyes, that 
he was not going to pay vast sums for the retrocession of 
his own franchise, which was in some instances coerced from, 
or wheedled out of an effete, governing, unrepresentative 
clique, the members of which never consulted the provinces 
which were concerned^ ''Taxation without representation" 
again. It was not like the repudiation of the bonds of the 
American southern States, for no money had been paid. 
"Compensation" and "indemnity" are two words the Chi- 
nese have learned to hate, and some day they may build 
an immense navy and equip a large army to interpret these 
words in the way the Occident interprets them, when they 
are synonomous with injustice and "grab." On the subject 
of railways, concessions, etc. the following remarks will be 
recalled in the American General J. H. Wilson's book China 
(1887) : 

The Chinese will build railways, open mines, etc. whenever they 
can be shown that this can be done with their own money, obtained 
at first by private subscription, and by their own labor, under the 
direction of foreign experts who will treat them fairly and hon- 
estly. They will not for the present grant concessions or subsidies 
to foreigners. They will not even take money from any syndicate 
by mortgage. 

Complaint was also made that the Ming dynasty, 268 
years ago, left as a heritage to the Manchu dynasty a land 
full of public works, bridges, roads, temples, pagodas, canals. 



THE REPUBLICAN REVOLUTION IN CHINA 75 

and that while the Manchu collected large taxes, he almost 
never repaired a temple, canal or road, so that China is 
now desolate of 'Hhe thing of beauty that is a joy forever." 
Objection was also made that the government shipyards, like 
the Kiangnan at Shanghai, were building luxurious ocean 
steam yachts for Prince Tsui and others of the imperial 
clan, an expense which the nation could not afford. 

This most wonderful of revolutions seemed to break as 
a bolt from a clear sky on October 10, 1911, at Wuchang on 
the Yangtze River, in the center of the land, under the very 
guns of the United States gunboats Helena and Villalobos, 
which were steaming by. It was, as I have attempted to 
show, rather a carefully planned matter, the propaganda 
going on abroad and at home under bands and leaders, all 
ofxwhose views did not stop at the same place, but whose 
opinion had one source in patriotic reform^, ^Kang Yu Wei, 
the oldest and first of the reformers, commenced in 1897 
by winning with his book Japan's Reform the emotional 
Manchu Emperor, Kwang Hsu, but when the Emperor 
fell in 1898 before the reactionary Dowager, Tse Hsi, Kang 
the Cantonese, with a Hong Kong education]^ was driven 
to British Singapore and Penang, from which places he has 
planned his travels and propaganda of the ''Pao Huang 
Hwei" (Empire Reform Association), which contemplated 
a revolution of reform, but the retention of the Manchu 
dynasty as constitutional monarchs for the time being. This 
association was quite different from the Kao Lao Hwei, 
Ko Ming, Sia Hwei, and Tung Men Hwei associations of ^ 
Dr. Sun Yat Sen, which aimed at a republic. In other 
words, Kang was a '^standpatter," medium reformer, and 
Dr. Sun a thorough going, advanced, reformer of the pro- 
gressive radical type. ' 

Liang Chi Chao, the writer and translator, went first to 
the Straits Settlements and then to Kobe and Yokohama, 
where he edited the reform Chinese papers, the Hsi Pao 
(Western paper), and the Ming Pao. He too tolerated the 
retention of the Manchu monarchy for the time being. Dr. 
Macklin, an American missionary of Nanking, had trans- *■ 
lated Henry George's Progress and Poverty into Chinese, 



76 JOHN STUART THOMSON 

and this book was in the hands of the reformers, and partic- 
ularly appreciated by Sun Yat Sen. Chang Yuan Chi's 
Commercial Press of Honan Road, Shanghai, had since 1898 
been translating western text books for the new Chinese 
schools. The American Presbyterian Press at Suchow,and 
at 18 Peking Road, Shanghai; the American Episcopal 
Press; the press of the other American and British missions 
and Bible Societies, had for years been issuing telling books 
of truth and progress in Chinese. Rich compradores of 
foreign houses at Hong Kong, like Ma Ying Pui, presented 
sums as large as $1000 at a time to patriotic lecturing soci- 
eties like the ''Wan Yung." There was more than one 
Chinese student of the classics in America who thumbed 
his Antigone, and cogitated upon Haemon's argument with 
his father, King Creon, that "absolute rule was only fitted 
for the monarch of a desert," and not a people who numbered 
400,000,000. 

Yuan Shi Kai was deposed by the Manchu Regent, Prince 
Chun in 1909, but from his exile at Chang Te, his birthplace 
in Honan province, he kept in dignified touch with the 
formation of the new forces of opinion and arms. Yuan is 
a mighty man, quite on the style of Li Hung Chang, his 
preceptor. At Tientsin, the foreigners assisted Yuan, pre- 
vious to 1909, with instruction in Occidental organization, 
and the best troops of the Empire in the matter of equip- 
ment, as well as the best schools, and almost the best mills, 
were organized by Yuan. Yuan has not been in close touch 
with the throbbing heart of the reform spirit in western, 
central or southern China, where he has never visited, nor 
with the foreigners of the great educational treaty ports of 
those sections, and of the brilliant British colony of Hong 
Kong in south China, which, with British and American 
Shanghai, has possibly done most for a reformed China. 
Yuan's only experience outside of China proper was when 
as a youth he served twelve years with the army in Korea, 
and in China itself he has traveled little. Yuan is practical 
and cold; swift in action and severe at times. An anecdote 
which throws a light on his mentality is the following. He 
jested with a Red Cross surgeon that he was taking a lot of 



THE REPUBLICAN REVOLUTION IN CHINA 77 

trouble; that while he had remade the man in sawing off 
his leg, he had not remade the soldier so far as he the com- 
mander was concerned; that generally in populous China, 
when the leg had to go, the whole man was let go. To err 
is human, to forgive is divine. In other countries than 
China, former standpatters are now enrolled as enthusiastic 
Progressives. A man should not always be judged by his 
past, for it is possible that he shall see a great light. Paul 
was indeed a converted Saul. Dr. Sun Yat Sen's greatest 
friend, Dr. Canthe of London, who has recently issued a 
book, says that Yuan Shi Kai is overrated by the foreigners 
of north China, but Dr. Sun himself has time and again 
vouched for the sincerity and enthusiasm of Yuan. The 
future certainly is glorious with great possibilities. 

Dr. Sun Yat Sen (I would like to Latinize his name as 5^' 
Sunyacius just as we Latinized Kung Put Tsze into Con- 
fucius) is a Hong Kong product^ and has been a revolutionist 
and a republican from the beginning. As a boy he was fed 
on thrilling stories of the Taiping rebellion by his uncle,/ 
who had served as an officer in that rebellion against the 
Manchus, Sunyacius was born at Fatshan, seven miles y 
west of Canton in 1866. From 1884 to 1887 he was assisted 
by Dr. Kerr, of the Anglo-American mission. Canton, in 
whose office he studied medicine and English. He studied 
medicine and surgery under his greatest friend. Dr. Cantlie 
at what is now the medical department of Hong Kong Uni- 
versity. In 1892 Dr. Sun became the first Chinese prac- ^ 
ticing medicine at beautiful Macao, and met with great 
opposition from the conservative Portugese doctors, who 
in 1894 drove him to Canton. His father was a Chinese ^ 
Christian evangelist, a Congregationalist (London Mission) 
by denomination. Even two years before Kang Yu Wei's 
work at Peking, Dr. Sun in 1895 smuggled arms into Canton, 
got his revolutionary forces at work, and received his first 
baptism of fire. Owing to the Swatow men not meeting 
the Hong Kong men at Canton, Sun's plans collapsed in 
1895. By the advice of Mr. Dennis, a solicitor of Hong 
Kong, Dr. Sun fled to Kobe, Japan; to Honolulu, to San 
Francisco, everywhere picking up threads of the theme of 



y 



78 JOHN STUART THOMSON 

liberty. The world is now familiar with his wanderings, 
disguises, privations, propaganda, through the long years, 
and his visits to bankers. Sun's headquarters have been 
at British Singapore and at Hong Kong, but he is as well 
known at San Francisco, Chicago, New York, London 
Vancouver and Yokohama. Incognito, he has walked into 
the dormitories of Columbia College, New York, and talked 
revolution and reform with some of the students under the 
unconscious eye of many a conservative. Dr. Sun is a scholar, 
propagandist, organizer and republican. His example has 
had much to do with the change in the styles of clothing in 
China. He is an author having published in 1904 in Lon- 
don a book on The Chinese Question. The Manchus kept 
Dr. Sun out of China during the long years, and he is there- 
fore not yet thoroughly known to the Hupeh and Hunan 
province guilds, who fired the first successful shot, but he is 
the pick of the southern and the alien Chinese, who have 
largely financed reform and revolution; the Chinese of Can- 
ton, Singapore, Penang, noble Hong Kong, Macao, America, 
England, Japan, Australia, and brilUant Shanghai. He has 
never held office under the Manchus at home or abroad, 
and is therefore not well known to foreigners in the salons 
of diplomats, in the capitals of the Caucasic race, or to 
the masses of the Chinese in the north and west provinces, 
but he is a coming man. The following incident will throw 
a pleasing light on Dr. Sun's character. On February 22, 
1912, his elder brother Sun Mei, perhaps an ordinary man 
in equipment, was at a time of enthusiasm almost elected 
governor of the great province of Kwangtung as a popular 
tribute to Sun Yat Sen. The latter wired from Nanking, 
disapproving of the choice for the province's good, and urg- 
ing ''brother Mei" to confine himself to business, for which 
he was more fitted. 

Another mighty man who prepared the way for revolution 
and whom America knows well was the Honorable Wu Ting 
Fang. Not a few perhaps held their breath when it was 
announced in November, 1911, that this courtly gentleman 
had entered the strenuous arena. Wu was the first of the 
reformers to insist on foreign acknowledgment of the rebel 



THE REPUBLICAN REVOLUTION IN CHINA 79 

government, and he formulated the most brilhant move of 
the revolution, the announcement that if foreigners advanced 
money to the imperialists, and the repubUcans won, the 
latter would repudiate such loans. This really won the 
revolution, for numbers of the foreign syndicates were at 
first heartily in favor of the Manchu statu quo. Wu has 
already codified the reform and penal laws of China, and is 
prepared to enter upon that difficult question, extraterri- 
toriality. Watch the Honorable Wu Ting Fang; he is not 
afraid to take the side of ''China for the Chinese," although 
he is one of the most poUshed gentlemen in western culture 
of all the Chinese officials. He aims to interpret the East 
to the West. Wu risked vast preferment, and he will grow 
in power with the masses of the Chinese nation. His broth- 
er-in-law is the exceedingly able Dr. Ho Kai, Commander 
of the British Order of Michael and George, the Chinese 
member of the Legislative Council of the royal colony of 
Hong Kong island, a thorough legislator, a brilliant man. 

There were other reformers in China and abroad at work 
from 1898 to 1911, although the western press gave no 
attention to the really astonishing matter. The bitter 
Hunanese repubhcan rebel, the irrepressible Hwang Shing, 
was also exiled by the Empress Dowager, Tse Hsi, in 1898. 
He fled to Japan with a price on his head. When the 
psychic moment was called at Wuchang in October 1911, 
Hwang was soon on the ground. He was one of the repub- 
lican generals who captured Nanking, and thus crowned 
the revolution with success, and he is now frequently at 
Peking, urging the views of the Yangtze provinces. 

In America, the editors of the Chung Sai Yat Po, the 
Chinese World, and Free Press at San Francisco, and the 
Chinese Reform News at New York, often visited by Sun Yat 
Sen's American representative, Wong Man Su, ably took up 
the propaganda, which was carried on in their own way by 
a thousand newspapers which arose throughout China from 
1906 onward, first in the treaty ports, and later in Chinese 
cities. Reference was made to the fact that while China, 
the largest Oriental country, was without a real Parliament, 
other Oriental countries had successfully overthrown despot- 



v/ 



80 JOHN STUART THOMSON 

ism and oligarchism, and had popular assemblies, which 
granted some representation in return for the privilege of 
taxation. Japan had a Diet; even Russia had a Duma; 
the Filipinos had an Assembly; Turkey had an Assembly; 
little Persia had a representative Mejliss; native members 
had at last been admitted into the Viceroy's Council in 
India; and Hong Kong, with its 500,000 Chinese, had long 
had two Chinese as brilliant members of the Legislative 
Council. 

Viceroy Seu Ki Yu's essay of 1866, praising Washington 
and republicanism as ideal, was reissued and distributed, 
and had its influence^ By 1909 and 1910 the reformers had 
compelled the Manchus to heed the howling of the wind, 
and see the shadow of a cloud, at least as big as a man's 
hand on the horizon of internal politics. The Manchus 
granted provincial and national assembhes, but they were 
called and considered only '' Tsecheng Yuan" (advice boards) 
and not legislative bodies in the free and full sense of the 
word. The pensions of the Manchus and bannermen in 
the various Chinese cities were decreased somewhat and 
land was offered them so that they might enter the indus- 
trial body of the nation. Many Manchus rebelled, as at 
Chingtu city in September, 1911. Argument increased. 
The cloud on the horizon grew larger. ( Objection was made 
to the court's monopoly of the rich copper mines of Yunnan 
province, and complaint was reiterated that while the south- 
ern provinces were the least consulted, and the weakest in 
representation in any governmental consultations that were 
held at Peking, the government overdeveloped the armies 
and schools of the three northern provinces of Pechili, 
Shantung and Shansi with taxes collected, largely in the 
southern provinces, where the government neglected schools, 
police and army divisions. It was hard to get the Stuart 
kings to call Parliaments, and when at a belated date they 
did, complaint was louder than ever, for there was some- 
thing to complain of, and at last a constitutional place to 
complain in. These Chinese assemblies gave little repre- 
sentation directly to the masses, a high property qualifi- 
cation debarring them, but the gentry of the guilds in 



THE REPUBLICAN REVOLUTION IN CHINA 81 

many cases, espoused the reform sentiment of the masses, 
exactly as the Stuart Parhaments did to the disgust of the 
Stuart kings who hoped for monarchic support, and as the 
barons of the ''Magna Charta" did at Runnymede to the 
disgust of Plantagenet John of England. , One provincial 
Assembly President we might note at this point. He is 
Tang Hua Lung, of the Hupeh Assembly. When Hankow 
was taken on October 13, 1911, Tang jumped to the front 
as organizer of the first republican provincial government, 
with headquarters at Wuchang, the ancient viceregal capi- 
tal of the illustrious Viceroy Chang Chih Tung. In the 
mother province of reform, the most progressive province 
politically of all the twenty-one, Kwangtung, Wu Hon Man 
agitated in his assembly for reform, and when the Imperial 
Viceroy, Chang Ming Chi fled to Hong Kong, Wu Hon 
Man burst into the Yamen at Canton with the rebelling 
16th and other regiments, and took charge of that great 
province for the republican rebels. /In its Nationalization- 
of-Railways scheme, the Manchus partially confiscated the 
Kwangtung railways, promising to pay the owners only 
60 per cent of their investment.) 

China's army was a territorial one. Troops raised in 
this way are hard to control in local emergencies, but they 
are easier to recruit, mobilize, drill and discipline at the 
beginning than mixed corps. Among the generals of divis- 
ions, transferred from the Navy Department, was the famous 
Li Yuan Heng, on whom the republicans largely fixed their 
hopes as the man trained and true for the real deeds of 
deadly arms, which make new governments possible. Prop- 
aganda and patience are all right in their places, but powder 
needs a special man of a stern mould, fit to deal with merci- 
less and terrible enemies. General Li was one of these 
men; General Hwang was another. General Hsu, who sent 
in the brilliant coup de grace at Nanking, was still another. 
You all know the details of the training of these men and 
that their success was not an accident. As general of the 
20th division of the northern army, camped at Lanchou, 
east of Peking, was General Chang Shao Tsen (we will 
call him Chang the first to distinguish him from two other 



82 JOHN STUART THOMSON 

Generals Chang of the Manchu camp at Nanking and else- 
where in the northeastern provinces). He will come for- 
ward in a moment. 

In the province where Shanghai is located, the President 
of the Assembly, Chang Chien, who proposes to visit Amer- 
ican Chambers of Commerce, and who is well known as the 
host in China of visiting Pacific Coast Chambers of Com- 
merce, was more than ready to declare for reform. He, with 
Wu Ting Fang, was insistent on the abdication of the Manchu 
dynasty, and the declaration of a republic. At Lhasa, in 
far away Tibet, was an Imperial resident who had been 
trained in reform at Shanghai, and in law at Yale. He 
was the eminent Wen Tsung Yao, destined to be the Assist- 
ant Foreign Minister of the first rebel government. For 
the most part however the radical reformers were new men 
unknown to the world, as the Manchus had naturally never 
given office to them. Whenever there is a movement 
towards liberty in Europe you generally find an English 
book, or an England-inspired man behind it. It will be 
noted that nearly all these Chinese reformers have come 
under American influence. 

Many causes, all important, helped to precipitate the 
crisis. ("Sheng Kung Pao and others had planned to compel 
the provinces and the gentry of the guilds, to sell out their 
many little railroads, many of which were paying well, to 
the central government, which intended to quickly national- 
ize the railroads under immense foreign loans. The local 
gentry feared that this meant the extinction of distributed 
small fortunes and opportunities; concessions of mines to 
foreigners; heavy interest; continuation of the unscientific 
Likin system of customs as a security; and payment of 
obnoxious bonuses. The bitter complaint written in blood, 
of the Hunanese of Changsha city on this subject was: 
''When a piece of meat is in the thief's mouth, it is hard to 
take it out." All may not agree with the Chinese position, 
but it is legal and wise to listen to the argument of the 
defense and not shout it out of court. "Why should we, 
with the richest mines on earth; the richest passenger, 
freight and labor field; with lands plethoric of water power 



THE REPUBLICAN REVOLUTION IN CHINA 83 

and grain; and the lowest debt, if the oppressive indemnities 
were wiped out, pay foreigners such immense bonuses, inter- 
est and concessions, discounts and profits, to go out of our 
country" rang the cry, not only in Hupeh, Hunan, Szech- 
uen, Shansi and Kwangtung provinces, but I have seen it 
in native papers printed under the shadow of foreign banks 
on the Bund at Tientsin in the north, and there was one 
large meeting of protest held by the Chinese of British 
Hong Kong in the Chui Yin hotel on September 3, 1911, 
delegates attending even from distant Szechuen province, 
where the ''Railroad Protection Association" of Chingtu 
city in August, 1911, had issued a famous placard of protest 
in which the four banking nations in caricature were made 
to say: "The wealth of the four provinces of the Yangtze 
and the south is all given to us four foreign nations to swal- 
low down at one gulp." A representative native Hankow 
paper wrote: "The merchants of Hupeh urge the people to 
take shares in their own railways; use your own money and 
do not go to foreigners; there is need of independence if 
you would preserve your liberty." Egypt was cited as the 
example of not following this course. You will note the 
Chinese believe that money, as well as hostile arms, can 
make slaves, j Even if a foreign banker, statesman, or mer- 
chant does not fully agree with the local feeling of the Chi- 
nese, it is wise to look frankly at their side of the argument 
in making educational, financial and political plans in the 
future. There was much complaint that the Manchu princes 
had accumulated private hoards from the taxes levied largely 
in the south. Something then was brewing, especially in 
the southern and central provinces. Not a hair of a for- 
eigner was to be touched. I would like to quote the written 
guarantee of the "Sia Hwei" (Reform Association) of Fuk- 
ien province to the foreigners of Fuchau if I had time. Its 
sentences will forever stand as a bond of friendship between 
the East and the West. These Fukien people were as good 
as their word, for besides sending levies to the revolution, 
the "Hsiang lao" (head men) of the villages organized 
home guards for the protection of both foreigners and natives. 
When the revolution broke out at Wuchang, the soldiers 



84 JOHN STUART THOMSON 

of the brave 30th regiment escorted the American mission- 
aries out of the Une of fire from Serpent Hill, and when the 
missionaries sailed on the German freighter Belgravia for 
Shanghai, the revolutionary soldiers of Generals Li and 
Hwang shouted a peace message that will endure : ''American 
republicans are brothers of ours." The heavy indemnities 
amounting to the awful sum of $250,000,000 have been a 
heavy load upon the Chinese people of the south and central 
provinces, who had nothing to do with the persecution of 
foreigners in 1900. The Chinese of the taxed south greatly 
appreciated therefore American and British action in return- 
ing part of the indemnities, but other nations should do 
likewise. The Westminster Gazette of London now supports 
this position. It is a growing wrong. 
] Histories of peoples, not dynasties and oligarchies, such 
as John Richard Green's History of the English People; books 
which helped to bring about the American revolution; the 
American missionary. Dr. Macklin's Chinese translation of 
Henry George's Progress and Poverty; great paeans of lib- 
erty and political pain the world over, were translated and 
read. The book Service was re-read. It was written in 1897 
by Tan Sze Tung, the son of a governor of Hupeh province. 
Tan was one of the martyrs for liberty, who were beheaded 
in 1898. Thomas Paine's The Crisis, which was good enough 
to be read by Washington before battle to the American 
regiments of 1776, was translated and read to the Chinese 
republicans.^ The preliminary dance was opened in Sep- 
tember, 1911, by far western Szechuen province, Peking 
issuing this edict in the yellow Peking Gazette: ''Whoever 
shall serve us by killing rebels, shall be rewarded regardless 
of rules;" a sort of Sicilian Mafia or Tammany Beckerism 
you see! /The Peking government had practically confis- 
cated the railways of the Szechuenese, as the paper which 
they were given in exchange, bore no guarantee of interest, 
and no reliance was put upon the value of the security 
by the provincial gentry, bankers and farmers. \ When 
provinces and states lose confidence in the sincerity of 
a fixed central government, which is not run by responsi- 



THE REPUBLICAN REVOLUTION IN CHINA 85 

ble parties which can be recalled, that government totters 
to its fall. /A national anthem was given to the nation to 
sing. 

May China be preserved! 

In this time of the Manchu dynasty, we are fortunate to see 

real splendor; 
May the heavens protect the imperial family. 

The south only sang it in parodiesj and in September 
the men of Szechuen rebelled and "fired the shot heard round 
the world." In a month, the soldiers of General Li's 8th 
division at Wuchang "fired the volley that was heard around 
the world." What followed rapidly lives in everyone's 
mind; the rushing of northern troops by railway to the triple 
cities at Hankow; the rolling to and fro of victory and 
repulse. General Li's troops, especially the "Pu Pa Tsze" 
(Dare to Die Brigade) of shaven round-heads, fought bravely. 
They were a sort of Cromwellians. When ammunition ran 
out, the rebel troops used the bayonet charge with daring. 
It was a new era in fighting in China when yellow men 
would charge, with only cold steel, across an area swept by 
fire from machine guns. The cause and not the command, 
had given them the new courage. Many of these men were 
recruited from the most famous boatmen of the world, the 
Szechuen trackers of the wild rapids and sublime gorges 
of the glorious Yang Tze River, and from the indefatigable, 
cheerful mountain coolies of Hupeh province. Province 
after province seceded until fourteen were in the fold of 
liberty. Reform was as hot as a prairie fire, and almost as 
hard to administer. iJOn October 29, a remarkable thing 
occurred among the divisions being massed for an attack 
on the rebel's capital. The 20th division, under Chang the 
first, as we have called him, mustered in the Lanchou camp, 
formed the famous Army League, and made reform demands 
on the packed National Assembly at Peking, just as Caesar's 
immortal 13th legion, before the rebellion, sent demands 
to the Roman Senate, whose orders they were supposed 
to take. The nineteen constitutional articles were granted 
and are a sort of Magna Charta in China. ' On Novem- 



x/ 



86 JOHN STUART THOMSON 

ber 3 at the front, the Imperial 3rd division made a 
bloody name for itself in the respect of massacre of non- 
combatants and arson. Hankow, a prosperous city of 
nearly a million was reduced to the appearance of a wrecked 
village. On the republican right wing at glorious Nanking, 
General Chang Hsun (we will call him Chang the second) 
was the imperial commander. He led his 9th division in 
similar bloody massacres as those which occurred at Hankow. 
On November 26, 1911, the republicans under Generals Hsu 
and Hwang Shing attacked the strong hill forts above Nan- 
king with determination. Dogged charges were made across 
the open and up the zig-zag of Purple Hill. Who will sing 
the feats of the new Chinese arms — yes, the Chinese who 
the world said would never make soldiers, even if they had 
a great cause at heart. The fighting was not as magnifi- 
cently solid and desperate as Pickett's gray charge at Get- 
tysburg; Thomas' impetuous charge up Missionary Ridge; 
the shining Cuirassiers' wild ride into the valley of death 
at Waterloo; Linievitch's grim defense of Putiloff Hill; the 
shouting sweep of Oku's Japanese up Nanshan Heights, 
or the silent plunge of Oyama's massive ranks into the 
Liaoyang valley, or against the black Mukden lines. It 
was as determined, daring and brilliant however as any land 
engagement in the South African or Spanish- American wars, 
and far braver and stronger than the theatrical engage- 
ments, with air ship accessories of the Italy-Tripoli war. The 
world's critics must now change their criterions. A strong 
cause will make a strong battle anywhere the world over, 
no matter what the color of the soldier, or the cut or tint 
of his battle flag. Liberty is equally proud of the children 
she begets, no matter what the clime. ' The Canton artil- 
lery sang a rugged song of Liberty. It is worth quot- 
ing, not only because it has poetical merit, but because 
it shows the spirit that was and is working in the souls of 
men: 

Freedom will work on this earth. 

Great as a giant rising to the skies. 

Come Liberty, because of the black hell of our slavery, 

Come enlighten us with a ray of thy sun. 



THE REPUBLICAN REVOLUTION IN CHINA 87 

Behold the woes of our fatherland. 

Other men are becoming all kings in equality. 

Can we forget what our people are suffering? 

China, the widest and oldest, is now as an immense desert. 

We are working to open a new age in China; 

All real men are calling for a new heaven and a new earth. 

May the soul of the people now rise as high as Kwangtung's 

highest peak; 
Spirit of Freedom, lead, protect us. ! 

The Americans of Nanking, Messrs. Macklin, Garrett, 
Blackstone, Bowen, believed in the Chinese saying ''Chiu / 
Ming" (save blood). They pleaded with the victorious 
republican generals Hsu and Hwang Shing for the first 
humanitarian surrender in Chinese civil war, as a thsilling 
example for all time that Chinese revolutionists, like George 
Washington's and Oliver Cromwell's men, were patriots and 
gentlemen at heart, and nor mere feudists fighting under 
the name of a great cause. Generals Ling, Hsu, Li, Hwang, 
etc., and of course Foreign Minister Wu Ting Fang, rose to 
the high level. They agreed to a surrender with honors. 
The panting troops held enthusiasm in control. Behind the 
walls the Imperialists breathed hard as well they might, 
seeing what they deserved, and the great populace of shop- 
keepers eagerly waited. Hurrah! A shout went up that 
lives would be guaranteed; yes, honor too. Fling open 
the pounded, riddled iron ''Great Peace!" The steel muz- 
zles of the hot Armstrongs; the deadly four-point-sevens; 
the spitting rapid fire, the 3-inch Krupp guns on Purple, 
Lion and Tiger hills held their smoky breath like good 
hounds in leash, but straining. The generals and cap- 
tains marked time; the troops craned their heads; the Can- 
tonese artillery hitched up the limbers to the gun carriages 
for their work of war was over. The American missionaries 
thanked God, and led on the way of peace for a China 
that would never forget the moving scene, where forgive- 
ness towered over revenge. 

Not all of us in the Occident had moved as fast as pro- 
gress moved in China. Even in December some of the --^ 
American journals surprisingly opposed the republic, despite 
Washington's recommendation in his farewell address that 



88 JOHN STUART THOMSON 

Americans should recommend their form of government to 
"the applause, the affection, and the acZop^ion of every nation." . 
For instance, on the very day that Dr. Sun Yat Sen was 
named President, the New York Outlook December 30, 
1911, (the writer of the article was not Colonel Roosevelt) 
stated that a Chinese republic could, would and should 
not be set up at present, and further that ''Americans 
would do well to throw all their influence on the side of a 
monarchy." Nine-tenths of the Outlook's readers doubtless 
thought that if Homer could sometimes nod, such surpris- 
ingly retrogressive words as these might be forgiven the 
generally progressive Outlook. Similarly in England, mother 
of bodks and sons of liberty, the large London banking house 
of Montagu, which has been prominent in China, issued 
a circular stating its ''satisfaction" when the republicans 
lost Hankow to General Feng under atrocious circumstances 
of almost unforgivable massacre and monumental arson. 
Memoria longa; lingua brevis! So far, the strongest move 
in the rebellion was the declaration of Foreign Minister Wu 
Ting Fang at Shanghai that if Britain joind certain monarch- 
ical powers in loaning the north money, a trade boycott 
would be instituted in the southern and central provinces 
against foreign trade, of which Britain held the largest share. 
This won Hong Kong, and Hong Kong was able to hold 
British diplomacy on Downing Street, London. It was a 
master move, as brilliantly effective as Napoleon's Berlin 
decree of November 21, 1806, blockading British commerce. 
Whatever comes in the next few years, this cry surely is for- 
ever in the heart of Lincoln's America: "Long live the 
republican idea of distributed wealth and distributed lib- 
erty in good old China, America's yellow brother across the 
narrowing purple Pacific." The harmony which prevailed 
between the missionaries and the republicans was inspiring. 
In a village of Hupeh province (Taiping), the people insisted 
that Mr. Landahl of the Netherlands Mission should head 
the local safety league which was maintaining order, and they 
pushed that astonished gentleman to the head in what was 
novel to him, of the successful pursuit of notorious pirates. 
The official birth of the Chinese republic came on Lincoln's 



THE REPUBLICAN REVOLUTION IN CHINA 89 

birthday (think of it, America), February 12, 1912. On 
February 15 the Christian Chinese Provisional President, 
at Nanking, Sun Yat Sen, performed a remarkable act of 
self-sacrifice to win the north for republicanism, and induce 
doughty Yuan to join the great cause. He was also able 
to induce the vehement south to accept the former reac- 
tionary, Yuan. J Here was the man who largely had achieved 
republicanism laying by all its honors at the climacteric 
moment in favor of the man who had most powerfully 
withstood republicanism. Yet Sun was happy. China was 
happy. Yuan was happy. With the least bloodshed ever 
known on a field of liberty, Sun and his cabinet had achieved 
the widest revolution ever known. They had established 
a republic of twenty-one republics four times the population 
of America. They will be managed by a combination of the 
British and American systems, as their bulk is too great 
in the aggregate for the strong centralization which is now 
becoming popular in America to correct certain evils for 
the time being. The provincial republics will develop largely 
as units, until the individual is educated sufficiently for 
greater cohesion. For a while, the republic may seem to 
work out like the Mexican system, but a dictator-pres- 
ident is not the final aim. Sun Yat Sen will go down to 
history as the greatest dreamer, prophet, organizer, altruist 
and political philosopher, the modern world has known; 
not that he is brainier than the white man, but being a 
yellow man, he has been able to accomplish more than any 
white man. His reception to the hearts of all men, at least 
the reception of his cause, should be enthusiastic. He 
stands not alone. The scores of idealists and fighters of 
his cabinet, made the way for the constructive men who 
will now take hold, and some of these men are now our 
guests in America. Above all. Sun converted Yuan by his 
self-obliteration, and Yuan converted the obstructionist 
north. What if the Honanese Yuan is at the head of affairs 
for a while instead of the Kwangtungese Sun. They are 
both Chinese and now both are republicans. China now has 
the center of the world's stage, and America has built the 
Panama Canal to quickly reach a front seat at the stage. 



90 JOHN STUART THOMSON 

The actors will have long and strenuous parts, and the 
house is filling up rapidly to hear, and see, and applaud, if 
all is done well, as it should be. When the Assemblies 
succeed each other. Dr. Sun's turn as Premier or President 
will doubtless come. A bas with personal jealousies, anti- 
pathies, or overleaping ambitions. Surely there is room for 
all in twenty-one republics, which are bound as one common- 
wealth. (As Macaulay said: ''All under the flag should serve 
the state. ^ It is repression of individual resentment and 
ambition which has made England and America so govern- 
able, and it is something that China will learn as the years 
of stress surge about the ship of state. The title of captain 
or president amounts to very little in the light of patriotism; 
all aboard the ship are equal when it comes to manning 
the pumps and shortening or letting out sail according to 
the winds that blow. Parties will arise Uke Sun's new party 
the Tung Men Hwei (Sworn Brother); provincial feeling 
will be recrudescent and assertive; leaders and their fol- 
lowings will clash at times, but the Chinese must learn, as 
we all have to learn, that the striving must be one way o' 
the rope, and not a tug against each other because of per- 
sonal greed, low ambition, or unruliness. \In hundreds of 
documents issued during the rebelhon, the republicans held 
up two men, Washington and Napoleon as representing suc- 
cessful protest against tyrants^.") But Washington laid the 
sword by the minute statesmanship could win. Napoleon 
used his sword to advance himself, and crush every will 
except his own: the way of an egotist. If China needs a 
foreign model to occasionally look at, let it be that of Wash- 
ington, with his eminent moderation, his unselfishness, his 
charity, his honor, his true republicanism which sees in every 
citizen (man or woman) a king equal to himself, for the 
ballot and tax receipt have made all men equal kings. Do 
not think that all the severity you hear of in disturbed 
China at present is unnecessary and forebodes dark days. I 
will instance one parallel. Before the days of direct pri- 
mary nominations in America we suffered from the machine 
system which advanced the incompetent sometimes and 
sometimes debarred the eminent and efficient from service 



THE REPUBLICAN REVOLUTION IN CHINA 91 

in the state. A saloon keeper, who brought 2000 votes would 
demand for instance the position of Secretary of State. 
"But you're not fitted for it; you're a hoodlum," The ward 
heeler would answer: ''I must have it; I have to pay my 
2000 brigands the 'graft,' which we say is ours; otherwise 
remember our revenge next election." The parallel! One, 
Shek Kam Chuen, a young stone cutter and human hair 
hawker of Canton was very successful in smuggling arms 
for the revolution, and on the declaration of independence 
he led a following of 2000 non-descript men who did effec- 
tive work in fighting. They were men who loved a fight 
more than liberty, not liberty more than life, like Nathan 
Hale. When the repubUc was victorious, and his troops 
were disbanded and paid, Shek was unsatisfied. He, a 
hawker, wanted high office when even President Sun turned 
his brother down from politics back to business in Canton, 
because he was not eminent for political ability. Shek made 
demands for himself and his men that the State could not 
consistently grant. He smuggled arms to take up piracy 
in reprisal on the harassed State. The way the governor 
of Canton treated Shek and his legal adviser Chang Han 
Hing should be engraved on tablets in every city hall of 
every municipality over the round world. The governor 
under the constitutional pressure of public opinion, captured 
the men at their headquarters, and under military law, or 
the application of the popular ''recall," he had them both 
shot to the great rejoicing of good citizens and tax payers. 
That ended one instance of heelerism, bossism, packed pri- 
mary, professional office holding, "public office a private 
graft," piracy, or whatever you like to call it, in modern 
China. The "popular recall" was a success, despite the 
cynicism of the standpatters in Canton, and one of those 
standpatters was Shek's wily lawyer Chang, who shared 
his fate much to his disgusted surprise. I am sorry William 
Dean Howells was not in Canton at that time to write 
A Modern Instance. At times cables may come to us that 
may make it seem that in troubled China Confucius has 
abdicated to Confusion. The solution largely lies in three 
things : railways^ education and a real repubhcan congress, 



92 JOHN STUART THOMSON 

none of the three to be interfered with by either a riotous 
or office-greedy army. (There can be no doubt that the 
action of the ninety generals of the northern army in forcing 
the National Assembly at Peking in July, 1912, at the 
sword's point, to accept certain appointments against their 
will, was inimical to the vitality of constitutionalism in 
China-^ ,Macaulay's words should be remembered forever 
that ''a constitution however faulty, is better than the best 
despot J'. The day however is bright, and despite Tenny- 
son's dictum a ''cycle of Cathay" will be as good as any 
other cycle, and to add Roosevelt's homely epigram, one's 
nation should be made as good for all of us as it has been 
for some of us — Manchus! The promise that America 
will help the new republican China is surely written on all 
our hearts. 

So acute a historian as Macaulay (essay on Milton) has 
pointed out that the destinies of the human race are some- 
times staked on the same cast with the destinies of a par- 
ticular people. So much the more reason why we, like all 
other nationals, should be keenly and warmly interested in 
the present and future of China, because so many American 
affairs (the Panama Canal and the Pacific being the bonds) 
are wrapt up in Chinese affairs. 



THE WESTERN INFLUENCE IN CHINA 

By Edward W. Capen, Ph.D., Hartford School of Missions; 

recently on special sociological and missionary research 

in the Far East 

The striking changes that have occurred within a twelve- 
month in the oldest, the most populous and potentially the 
most powerful nation of the Orient and of the world, are of 
profound significance to us of the West. We are in large 
measure responsible for what has occurred. Besides this, 
the political and social movements in China, which culmi- 
nated last February in the abdication of the Manchu dynasty 
after a rule of nearly 270 years, and the inauguration of 
what has been characterized as the Imperial Republic of 
China, place upon western nations new obligations and open 
to them new opportunities. It is therefore fitting that the 
topic ''Western Influence in China" should have a place 
upon this program. 

The discussion of this paper falls into four divisions: I, 
What western influence has accomplished; II, What west- 
ern influence should not destroy; III, Where China can 
learn from the West; IV, How the West can be most helpful. 

There are four principal channels through which western 
influence has reached China. The governments of Europe 
and America have exerted a direct pressure upon the gov- 
ernment of China and forced changes in its treatment of 
foreigners and those under their influence. For three hun- 
dred years western merchants tried to open China to foreign 
commerce. These efforts culminated during the nineteenth 
century in wars between China and the European powers, 
chiefly Great Britain, as a result of which China was opened 
to western influence as exerted by the trader and his agents. 
A third channel through which China has been influenced 
from the West may be called simply western example. 

93 



94 EDWARD W. CAPEN 

Especially in these later years, say within the last genera- 
tion, a considerable number of Chinese, chiefly students 
and diplomatic representatives, have visited the West for 
longer or shorter periods, have thus become more or less 
familiar with western institutions and ideals, and have on 
their return taught many of these ideas to their friends and 
associates. The experiences of the Chinese who have set- 
tled in western lands, chiefly along the western shores of 
the American continent, and still more recently the intro- 
duction of western books and the publication in China of 
books and periodicals that give the facts about western life, 
thought and achievements, have spread the knowledge and 
influence of things western, especially among students and 
the progressive classes. To the influence of Chinese who 
have visited or resided in the West or who have become 
familiar with its life, should be added that of the personal 
example of the westerners who visit or live in China. This 
influence, though largely centered in the port cities, is by 
no means to be disregarded. Finally, perhaps the most 
important of all channels, is the Christian missionary. He 
has been the first to penetrate to the more remote parts of 
the country. He has come closest to the life of the people, 
and unlike many a trader or government official, has for the 
most part stood resolutely as the embodiment of the best ele- 
ments in the life of the West. His — and I should add specifi- 
cally her — quiet and pervasive personal influence has had 
very much to do with laying the foundations for the new 
regime. 

Such are some of the channels through which western 
influence has reached China. What have been the results? 
The answer to this question forms our first point. 

I. What Western Influence has Accomplished 

In general, the chief effects of the influence of western 
governments and commerce have concerned the industrial 
development of China. Those of western example have 
modified the educational and political systems of the coun- 
try, while those of missionary work have affected the educa- 
tional, philanthropic, and ethical ideals. 



THE WESTERN INFLUENCE IN CHINA 95 

< Until the middle of the last century, the Chinese govern- 
ment confined all its commercial relations with foreigners 
to the frontier. Canton was the center of the trade with 
Europe and America until the treaty of Nanking in 1842, 
which closed the so-called Opium War with Great Britain, 
ceded Hongkong to England and opened five treaty ports, 
Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai. As a 
result of subsequent wars or pressure otherwise exerted, 
the number of these ports has increased to forty-nine, located 
on the frontiers, along the coast, and on the navigable rivers. 
With the development of foreign trade came the adoption 
in 1854 of rules by which the collection of customs was 
placed in the hands of foreigners. Starting with the organ- 
ization in 1861 of a department for the transmission of its 
own postal matter, the Customs Department began in 1876 
to open its service to the public, and twenty years later 
the Imperial Post was organized and grafted upon the Cus- 
toms. It was transferred in May, 1911, to the Chinese 
Board of Communications. While the government and 
large merchants had always had means of transmitting 
letters, the ordinary Chinese had none. The statistics for 
1910 give the number of post-offices as 5,357, the articles 
transmitted 355,000,000, including 3,750,000 parcels and 
25,500,000, registered articles. The money order system 
transported $10,000,000. The postal routes covered 13,000 
miles by railways and steamers, and 87,000 miles by regular 
couriers. The telegraph system, which has been independ- 
ent of the customs service, has developed less rapidly, but 
during the year 1909 over 600 miles of new lines were con- 
structed and twenty-two new offices opened. There are 
now 560 offices and 28,000 miles of telegraph lines connect- 
ing the principal cities and the neighboring countries. 

Just about the time when the postal service was insti- 
tuted, foreigners in 1875 opened the first railway in China 
from Shanghai to Wusung. Within two years the line, 
which had come into possession of the government, was 
torn up, everything, including engines and cars, dumped 
upon the shores of Formosa, and a temple erected upon the 
site of the station. Such were the unpropitious beginnings 



96 EDWARD W. CAPEN 

of the attempt of foreigners to improve the transportation 
facilities of China. Later, under foreign stimulus, the Chi- 
nese took up the railway question again, but made little 
progress until the era of foreign concessions that succeeded 
the close of the war with Japan in 1895. So rapid was the 
construction that within sixteen years 5500 miles have been 
opened to traffic and 2800 miles of trunk lines are under 
construction, and these figures do not include the Japanese 
and Russian railways in Manchuria. The projected lines 
will connect all parts of the country, including even Thibet, 
with the political and commercial centers. The Chinese 
are as rapidly as possible taking over these railways and 
bringing them under complete Chinese control. 

Added to the railways are the steamer lines along the 
coast and the internal waterways of the country. The Yang- 
tse system alone furnishes 12,000 miles of water navigation, 
and in general there are 8000 miles of rivers in China navi- 
gable by steamers. Since 1898 the internal waters have 
been opened to vessels flying foreign flags. While this per- 
mission would not have been granted by a nation able to 
resist, it has resulted in securing for the chief river routes 
comfortable and speedy steamers that sail under the British 
German, French, Japanese and Chinese flags. J^ 

These improvements in means of communication have 
made possible the new China. When the unwieldy junk, 
the man or woman propelled river or canal boat, with a 
sail as auxiliary power, the sedan chair, the wheelbarrow 
or cart moving slowly over the egregious roads, were the 
swiftest means of conimunication, the virtual independence 
of the provinces was inevitable. The increasing unity of 
thought and action brought about by improved means of 
communication made it possible for the entire empire to 
throw off the rule of the Manchus within a few months. 
The effects of floods and famines can now be mitigated and 
speedy relief secured. On the other hand, thousands, or 
even millions, of river boatmen, chair coolies, carters and 
the like have lost their means of support. Important cities 
and towns situated on the old routes are losing business 
and population, while new towns and cities are developing 
at the new distributing points. 



V 



THE WESTERN INFLUENCE IN CHINA 97 

Western influence and competition are leading also to 
industrial changes, such as the opening of mines, the estab- 
lishment of large manufacturing plants like the Hanyang 
Iron Works, managed by western-trained Chinese, and the 
growth of factories with power- or improved hand-looms. 
The inevitable suffering caused by industrial development 
is increased in the case of China by the pressure of popula- 
tion upon the soil, the relative immobility and conservatism 
of labor, and the lack of education and adaptability among 
the masses. It is reduced somewhat by the solidarity of 
the Chinese and their ability to exist upon a pitifully small 
income. 

The millions of Chinese furnish, it is believed, an almost 
unlimited and unworked market, and the West is seeking 
to force the sale of its wares. The effect of this is not always 
good, even apart from the dislocation of industry. 

The net increase in the importation of western liquors dur- 
ing the year 1909 as compared with 1908 was Taels 845,186. 
These threaten to take the place of opium among the wealth- 
ier classes. The western cigarette is further impoverishing 
the common people, the daily consumption being put at 
twenty millions. So serious are the consequences that cer- 
tain regions have driven out the salesmen, torn down their 
posters, and destroyed all the cigarettes they could find. 
But with a courage and persistence worthy of a better cause, 
and aided, it has been alleged, by drugged cigarettes, the 
representatives of the British-American Tobacco Company 
are continuing their work of driving out the cheap and 
innocuous Chinese tobacco with this more expensive and 
deleterious western product. 

The injection of morphia is another vice for the intro- 
duction and maintenance of which foreigners are responsible. 
There are no records before 1892, but during the ten years 
from 1892 to 1902, the importation increased from 15,761 
ounces to 195,133 ounces, each ounce being good for from 
one to two thousand injections. In 1903 a prohibitory 
tax was imposed, and the imports declared to the customs 
at once fell off to 128 ounces in 1904 and 54 ounces in 1905. 
The explanation of this is smuggling. 



98 EDWARD W. CAPEN 

In this realm western influence is decidedly a mixed 
blessing. 

The chief effects of western example have been in the 
realms of education, political organization and administra- 
tion, and social ideals. 

For generations, China had an education that was based 
upon the study of the Chinese classics. It was remarkable 
for its antiquity, its democracy, and, as contact with the 
West revealed, its inadequacy. It did not produce men 
who could lead China successfully in competition with the 
rest of the world. \ Western education was introduced into 
China by the missionaries. Catholic and Protestant. In 
1861 the Imperial Maritime Customs, which were under 
foreign control, started two colleges in Peking and Canton. 
These were taught by foreigners and were chiefly for the 
training of Chinese interpreters. The first systematic 
attempt to send Chinese students abroad for education was 
^ made in 1872, but ended in the recall of the students from 
the United States in 1881. After the war with Japan, 1894- 
95, the great Viceroy Chang Chih-tung advocated that 
upon the ancient Chinese education should be grafted west- 
V ern subjects. During the brief reform period of 1898, the 
late emperor by a series of decrees abolished the old literary 
essay as the standard for literary examination, and ordered 
the establishment of schools and colleges in provincial cap- 
itals, and in prefectural, departmental, and district cities, 
directed that existing schools should be altered into schools 
for practical Chinese literature and for western learning, 
and created the Imperial University at Peking, appointing 
as its head that veteran missionary. Dr. W. A. P. Martin. 
With the reaction that culminated in the Boxer uprising 
I of 1900, all these changes were swept away, only to be 
renewed again under the late Empress Dowager during the 
last decade. Before the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty, 
it was provided by a decree of January 13, 1903, that a 
complete educational system should be created, extending 
from the kindergarten up through the primary, higher pri- 
mary, and middle school, to the high school (or college), the 
university and the post-graduate college for higher studies. 



THE WESTERN INFLUENCE IN CHINA 99 

Provision was also made for the education of girls and the 
training of teachers. This educational system was modeled 
upon that of Japan, which is along German lines. It called 
into its service foreigners and Chinese educated abroad. 
While many of the schools existed only on paper and the 
average efficiency was low, yet there were notable exceptions, 
especially in the imperial province of Chihli. Whatever 
the quality, the numbers of the new schools and of their 
students rapidly increased. At the close of 1910, there were 
in Peking alone 252 such schools with 15,774 students, and 
in the provinces 42,444 schools with an enrollment of 1,284,- 
965. Because of recognized imperfections, the Board of 
Education last year called together in Peking the leading 
scholars and educators of China, who formed themselves 
into the Central Education Society and proceeded to dis- 
cuss educational problems, and make recommendations to 
the Board of Education. Under the new government the 
movement is along these same lines, including even the 
recognition of English as an official language, and the pro- 
posed abolition of the compulsory worship of the tablet of 
Confucius, which abolition has actually been put into effect 
in the Kwangtung province^' So serious was the reaction 
against the old education that at one time mission schools 
had difficulty in inducing their pupils to study the Chinese 
classics or cultivate a beautiful literary style. If the papers 
may be credited, a prominent member of the new cabinet 
is unable to read or write in his own language. A purely 
western education is, of course, only one degree less to be 
deplored than the old discarded Chinese education. 

Similarly, in the political realm, contact with the West 
led the reform party in China to demand the reconstruction 
of government along the lines of western parliamentary 
institutions. Theoretically the government of the Manchus 
was that of an absolute monarchy but actually the provinces 
enjoyed a large measure of autonomy, and the local com- 
munities for the most part governed themselves. It is this 
democratic foundation of the empire that is one of the rea- 
sons for believing that the present political experiment of 
China will succeed. The graft and corruption which char- 



100 EDWARD W. CAPEN 

acterized the old administration, its inefficiency and the lack 
of a real unity, led, with the growth of the spirit of nation- 
alism, to a demand for political reforms. Pressure from 
western governments had already secured some changes 
that affected international relations. Such was the organ- 
ization in 1861, after the capture of Peking by the French 
and British, of the Tsungli Yamen, changed forty years 
later into the Waiwu Pu, as the Board of Foreign Affairs. 
YThe great step forward was the appointment in 1905 of an 
Imperial Commission to study the administrative systems 
of foreign countries with a view to the possible establish- 
ment of a representative government in China. This 
appointment committed the government to a policy of 
reform. The commission reported the following year, and a 
little later a decree was issued promising the calling at some 
date in the future of a parliament. Administrative reforms 
were made, some useless offices abolished, certain boards 
consolidated, and new boards instituted. An attempt was 
made to remove the bitterness between Manchu and Chinese 
by abolishing some of the distinctions and depriving the 
Manchus of certain privileges. In August, 1908, an imper- 
ial decree laid down a nine year program for constitutional 
reform. From October 14 to November 23, 1909, provincial 
assemblies met, the first really representative bodies to be 
summoned by the government to have a share, but only as 
advisers, in the government of the empire. From that time 
on the government had no peace, for the demand €-or-a- 
-demand for a responsible cabinet and the speedy summon- 
ing of a parliament was incessantly pressed. The first 
National Assembly met October 2, 1910, and immediately 
sought to arrogate to itself powers which the Crown had 
not dreamed of granting. The most that the Throne would 
concede was the promise of a cabinet the next year and a 
Parliament at the end of three years. This did not satisfy 
the people, and before the second session of the National 
Assembly was convened last autumn the revolution was in 
full swing and culminated in the abdication of the Manchus 
February 12, 1912. The object of the Throne in its program 
for constitutional reform had been to consolidate the empire, 



THE WESTERN INFLUENCE IN CHINA 101 

deprive the provinces of their virtual autonomy, nationaHze 
finance, justice and education, and, by admitting the repre- 
sentatives of the people to an advisory position, quiet the 
demand for self-government. The Throne did not propose 
to divest itself of its legislative, administrative and judicial 
prerogatives; nor was it to be required to adopt the recom- 
mendations of the assemblies. \ At the present time in the 
construction of the new government, the influence of west- 
ern example is clearly evident. Republican forms are being 
followed for the first time in the history of the Orient. 
In the new National Assembly, the upper house, or Senate, 
is to represent the provinces, the dependencies and the 
Chinese abroad, and each province is to have equal repre- 
sentation. The lower house will be composed of one repre- 
sentative for each 800,000 of the population. The primary 
elections have been called for December 10th. 

China seeks more than representative government. The 
extra- territoriality upon which in the past Western nations 
have rightly insisted is most galling to the proud and sensi- 
tive Chinese. The leaders recognize, however, that it is use- 
less to demand any change until the judicial system has 
been reorganized along western lines, with a true penal code, 
incorruptible courts, and properly administered prisons. 
The movement in this direction has been going on for some 
time. Five years ago experts began the compilation of a new 
penal code, which after several revisions was adopted in 
1910. In January of last year were held the first of the 
regular examinations in law which were to be compulsory 
upon all new officials in the Board of Justice. Not long 
after, it was decided to establish a high court of justice in 
each province and this was done in the progressive ones. 
This does not necessarily imply that these courts are yet 
ideal. Only other pressing events prevented the carrying 
into effect of proposals for the better administration of the 
civil courts. Almost before the revolution was complete, 
the provisional government in Shanghai established a mod- 
ern court with three well qualified judges, two of whom were 
trained in Great Britian, and in this court, for the first time 
in China, there sat a jury drawn by lot from lists of citizens. 



102 EDWAKD W. CAPEN 

The outcome of this first trial, however, was such as to raise 
a question as to whether China is yet ready for the proper 
apphcation of the jury system. The Manchu government 
issued edicts abohshing torture, but the experience of the 
mixed court in Shanghai leads to a doubt as to whether the 
Chinese are ready to be governed and to see justice done 
without the use of the bamboo to extort confession. The 
prisons of China have been places of horror to a westerner 
but these are being reformed. China was represented at the 
last International Congress on Prison Reform by delegates 
who subsequently made a study of European prisons. As 
long ago as 1908 I was privileged to visit in Tientsin and 
Paotingfu what might almost be called model prisons, in 
which the prisoners were well cared for under good sanitary 
conditions, were given instruction, and were taught useful 
arts. This movement is spreading wherever want of will 
and of money do not prevent, and a model prison has been 
discovered even in distant Yunnan. 

In addition to these fundamental changes in education 
and government, the leaders of the new China are imbued 
\ with western ideals and are adopting western customs. On 
February 22, 1910, the government issued an edict abolish- 
ing slavery and prohibiting the buying and selling of human 
beings in China. No maidservants or concubines were to 
be sold, and concubines had their position improved. There 
were loop holes and it was reported a year later that there 
was no evidence that the edict had made any difference to 
the large number of farm laborers who are slaves. Some of 
the most radical reformers have adopted the ultra-western 
views re^rding the position of woman and the relations of 
the sexes. An extreme and far from admirable new woman 
had appeared four years ago in certain Chinese cities like 
Nanking. With the advent of the new regime this has 
been carried still further, with disastrous consequences to 
many young women, who have found to their sorrow and 
shame that Chinese society is not yet ready for that freedom 
of which they had heard and which they sought to exercise 
apart from the restraints and limitations which are insisted 
upon even in the West. Educated young Chinese here and 



THE WESTERN INFLUENCE IN CHINA 103 

there demand some voice at least in the choice of their 
future wife or husband, and a recent issue of a Chinese 
paper reports the case of an irate father in Canton whose feel- 
ings may be imagined when he discovered that his daughter 
was being courted by a young man in western fashion. 
There is one reform, however, affecting women that is 
wholly commendable. This is the natural foot movement 
which seeks to remove from Chinese women the incubus of 
suffering and disability resulting from the cruel practice of 
binding the feet. Begun by western ladies, missionary 
and civilian, resident in China, the Anti-Foot-Binding Soci- 
ety has been taken over by the Chinese, and this reform is 
now thoroughly naturalized. Western methods of saluta- 
tion and western dress are being adopted, often with deplor- 
able and ill-considered rapidity. Beyond these specific 
reforms, there has been noted an increasing humaneness 
in the public sentiment concerning various relics of a less 
advanced civihzation than is now advocated for the new 
China. 

There has recently come to my notice a copy of the pro- 
gram of the Social Reform Association, which was organized 
a few months ago by some of the leaders of the new China 
while they were on the steamer going north to take over the 
reigns of government. Among the leaders in the Association 
were the late premier Tang Shao-jd, the ministers of Navy, 
Education, Agriculture and Forestry, and many others. 
This association as reported in a Chinese paper is pledged 
to a list of reforms, thirty-three in number, of which I will 
quote a few : 

2. Do not take concubines. 

3. Advocate independent holding of property after coming to 
age. 

4. Cultivate dependence on self, not on friends and on relatives. 

5. Accord full equality between men and women. 

6. Prohibit early marriage. 

7-9. Advocate marriage by choice, the right of divorce and of 
remarriage. 

11. Advocate small families. 

14. Abolish kow-tow using a bow in its place. 

15. Abolish foot-binding, wearing of earrings and face painting. 
17. Receive no gifts while holding ofl&cial positions. 



104 EDWARD W. CAPEN 

20. Advocate the giving of private property to benefit the public. 

24. Prohibit idols and images. 

25. Prohibit geomancy, or other forms of divination. 

26. Prohibit appetites that are harmful to health, such as smok- 
ing, drinking, etc. 

33. Prohibit indecent advertisements. 

These and the other reforms concern themselves with moral- 
ity and with simplicity and purity of life. Nearly every 
one is in harmony with western and with Christian ideals, 
and strikes at some established custom or institution of 
China, i 

Another side to this question of western influence should 
be noted, and that is that western example is not always 
helpful. The evil lives of many foreigners resident in China, 
the fact that the worst sides of our life are often the only 
sides seen by the Chinese students in the West, the demoral- 
izing example of the social evils existing in the West with 
which the Chinese are familiar, and the influence of our 
yellow press and of our pseudo-scientific and atheistic treat- 
ises, not to mention our decadent literature, are to be allowed 
for as counterbalancing the otherwise helpful influence of 
western example. 

The fourth channel through which western influence has 
reached China has been the missionary, both Protestant 
and Catholic. The missionary has affected China through 
schools, medical work, and the publishing of books and 
papers, as well as by the preaching of the Christian religion 
with its high ethical ideals. 

The number of missionaries through whom the western 
influence is exerted runs up into the thousands. The latest 
statistics indicate the presence in China of over 5000 Protest- 
ant missionaries and of nearly 50 Roman Catholic Bishops, 
assisted by more than 1400 European priests. Associated 
with them as coworkers are, for the Protestants 15,500 Chi- 
nese clergy, unordained, religious workers, medical assistants 
and teachers, both men and women, and for the Catholics 700 
Chinese priests and an unreported number of other helpers. 
The diplomatic and consular officials reside in the capital 
and in the port cities. The representatives of western indus- 
trial life have usually resided in these same centers, though 



THE WESTERN INFLUENCE IN CHINA 105 

now they travel through the provinces advertising and sell- 
ing their goods. On the other hand, the missionaries are 
found all through China. They remain for years in the 
same region (one missionary in Fukien has completed thirty- 
five years at one city), travel widely through the country 
districts, and win the support of the people. Such mission- 
aries have done much to commend things western to the 
Chinese. Thus, a Chinese official, who had not been fav- 
orable to missionary work and who was noted for his biting 
criticisms of certain prominent missionaries, nevertheless 
made the following statement a few years ago to a mission- 
ary in Nanking, with whom he was intimate: ''Why is it 
that the foreigners all like to come to Nanking? It is 
because you missionaries came first and made a favorable 
impression. In Canton it was a regular hell on earth until 
the missionaries came and tried to make things better." 
A sociologist who went to China a few years since preju- 
diced against the missionary soon discovered that the mis- 
sionary was virtually the only foreigner who got into the 
heart life of the people and could give the traveler the real 
facts. The residence in China of so many westerners, who 
speak the vernacular, most of whom live in their own homes 
and embody western ideals of culture, purity, and service 
has had an influence that no statistics reveal. 

The missionary has been the pioneer of modern education 
in China. The Protestant missionaries maintain 3700 day 
or primary schools with 86,000 pupils and more than 500 
higher schools with an enrollment of more than 31,000. Up 
until recently the Christian schools have been the best in 
the country, and even now but few government schools can 
compete with the best Christian schools in the grade of their 
teaching, especially of English and western subjects, and 
above all in their moral tone. The ethical influence of most 
government schools, it is declared, leaves much to be desired, 
while the Christian school seeks by moral and religious 
instruction and by careful supervision and discipline to 
develop the pupils into strong and public spirited men and 
women. The direct influence of this educational work has 
been great but its indirect influence is even greater. Not 



106 EDWARD W. CAPEN 

only have these schools trained leaders for the new China, 
but their success has helped to awaken an interest in a west- 
ernized education, missionaries were drafted into the 
service of the government education, and earnest Christian 
teachers have been employed by the government in its own 
schools. 

Again, the missionary has been a pioneer in the relief of 
physical suffering. Even today China probably is the scene 
of more unnecessary physical suffering than any other equal 
area on the globe. Every since the days of Dr. Peter 
Parker, who nearly eighty years ago opened a hospital in 
Canton and within less than two years had treated more 
than nineteen hundred eye patients, the medical missionary 
has done much to remove prejudice, to commend western 
science and the Christianity that is taught and lived by 
the missionary physician, and to open the doors to other 
uplifting influences. From these small beginnings the work 
has grown until now there are reported more than three 
hundred medical missionaries, of whom nearly one-third are 
women, who have charge of 235 hospitals and two hundred 
dispensaries. The number of in-patients during the last 
year for which we have reports was more than 50,000 and 
the number of out-patients one and a quarter million. Not 
content with this, the physician has added to his other 
multifarious duties that of training Chinese men, — and 
women too, — as nurses and physicians. The finest medical 
school in China, located at Peking and patronized by the 
government, is under missionary auspices, and there are 
developing in other provinces similar advanced schools. 
The more elementary schools are also rendering noble service 
and there are many Chinese physicians who are proud to 
advertise the fact that they studied under a beloved and 
honored Christian doctor. There are some six hundred 
Chinese thus being trained as physicians and nurses in some 
eighty classes or schools. In these days the number of 
highly trained Chinese physicians is increasing, but the num- 
ber is still so small that there is great need for further enlarg- 
ing the Christian medical forces connected with the missions. 



THE WESTERN INFLUENCE IN CHINA 107 

The first insane asylum in China was opened by a mission- 
ary, and a hundred opium refuges, some twenty leper hos- 
pitals and asylums, and institutions for the blind are other 
closely allied branches of Christian service conducted by 
missionaries. The maintenance of orphanages and the work 
of famine relief exhibit to the Chinese the humanitarian 
aspect of our western civilization. The Chinese have been 
stimulated to open hospitals of their own, either with west- 
ern or with Chinese medical treatment. All this has done 
much to increase the humaneness of Chinese life and take 
away the feeling of helplessness on the part of sufferers. It 
need hardly be added that the missionary physicians did 
yeoman service with the Chinese physicians during the 
scourge of pneumonic plague in Manchuria in the winter of 
1911. 

Still a third line of missionary work is that of the press. 
Not only have the missionaries taught western science, his- 
tory, and philosophy, but they were pioneers in publishing 
in Chinese not only religious works but also scientific books, 
translated or original. Text-books for schools and colleges, 
up-to-date medical works and books on such subjects as 
economics and international law have been produced by 
the missionary. The great Commercial Press of Shanghai, 
which is the largest printing establishment in Asia, employ- 
ing more than one thousand hands with a capital of $1,000,- 
000 and net annual profits of $200,000 Mexican, was started 
by Christian Chinese, who were trained in a mission press. 
Their business is conducted on advanced principles with 
profit sharing and welfare work. This press is producing 
the books for the new schools of China and is printing trans- 
lations of the best western works. One object of this lit- 
erary activity by missionaries is to reach those who are not 
otherwise directly reached. This object has been behind 
such efforts as that of Dr. Gilbert Reid and his Interna- 
tional Institute, of a British missionary like Mr. White- 
wright of Shantung and his museum, which was visited in 
1909 by 215,000 people of whom more than a thousand were 
officials, and of the scientific work carried on by the Y. M. 



108 EDWAED W. CAPEN 

C. A. in various parts of China. In these ways, those ordin- 
arily beyond the range of foreign influence are interested 
in western science. 

Still further, through what might be called the primary 
work of the missionary, viz., the gathering of Christian 
churches, the missionary, both directly and indirectly, is 
a channel through which western influence reaches the people. 
The Roman Catholic Church reports more than 1,350,000 
Chinese Christians, while the Protestant figures show a 
Christian community of about 325,000, with a larger num- 
ber, perhaps three-quarters of a million, under Christian 
influence. While no attempt is made to westernize the 
converts, while every effort, in fact, is make to keep them 
as thoroughly Chinese in the best sense as possible, yet 
contact with the missionary and the adoption of Christianity 
as a religion inevitably gives these people the western point 
of view in those respects in which western civilization 
embodies the ideals of Christianity. The Christians stand 
against opium and gambling, the twin curses of China, insist 
upon the better treatment of women and the suppression 
of female infanticide, once so frightfully common, and advo- 
cate and practice the unbinding of the feet. Parents often 
desire their daughters to be married to Christian young 
men because they will be sure of considerate treatment. 
Non-Christian Chinese have testified to the higher moral 
standards among Christians, and the leaders of the Christian 
Chinese church, pastors, teachers, and physicians, are a body 
of men of the highest character, combining the best elements 
of Chinese civilization with the best elements derived from 
the West. For years the requirement that officials and 
teachers in government schools should be present and share 
in periodic ceremonies which Christians felt themselves 
unable for conscientious reasons to countenance, excluded 
them from public life, but now they have come to the 
front. Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the first provisional president, 
and General Li, commander in chief of the army of the 
revolution and first provisional vice president of the Repub- 
lic, are among the Chinese Christians who have taken the 
lead in establishing a new government that embodies west- 



y 



THE WESTEEN INFLUENCE IN CHINA 109 

ern political ideals. When the Province of Fukien went 
over to the revolutionists, the government was intrusted 
to eight commissions, the presidents of four being Chris- 
tians. The commissioner of education for Kwangtung prov- 
ince is a Christian professor in the Canton Christian Col- 
lege. It has been stated that three-fourths of the leaders 
of the revolution were either Christians or favorable to 
Christianity. While not personally a Christian, President 
Yuan Shih Kai is favorable to Christianity, has had his 
family educated in Christian schools, and took early occas- 
ion to declare that the new constitution would grant the 
Chinese freedom of reUgion and of worship. This is included 
in Article VI, Chapter VI of the provisional republican con- 
stitution. 

These are some of the results in China of western influence. 
We pass now to consider more briefly the remaining points. 

II. What Western Influence Should not Destroy 

No nation could have gone calmly on its way as China has 
done while Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, 
and all the medieval powers waxed, waned and disappeared, 
unless it possessed strong characteristics. A nation that 
has such sources of strength must never allow itself to be 
deprived of them, and the West must not seek their destruc- 
tion. 

Note, for example, the high ethical code. Whatever may 
be said of the practical morality of China, there is no deny- 
ing that as a system of ethics Confucianism ranks next to 
Christianity. Practically all the Christian precepts are 
found there, and, unlike western philosophers who have 
sought to deduce their ethical systems from some abstract 
conception, Confucius rested his upon the relations which 
each individual sustains to those about, above, and below 
him. 

One of the fruits of Confucianism has been family solidar- 
ity. It is true that this has been carried to extremes to 
the partial atrophy of initiative and of the sense of personal 
responsibility, but this loyalty to ancestors and relatives 
is one of the corner stones upon which Chinese civilization 



110 EDWAED W. CAPEN 

has rested. With the population pressing as it does and 
as it must continue to do upon the means of subsistence 
and with the lack of surplus land, this is an element that 
must be preserved. It would be a calamity if the spirit 
of extreme individualism that has been characteristic of the 
West should ever come to prevail in China. 

Closely connected with this fact is another, the abiUty 
of the Chinese to cooperate. While the typical Chinese 
has difficulty in standing or acting alone, his capacity for 
working with his fellows means that large undertakings will 
be possible as soon as public spirit, absolute integrity, and 
enlightened leadership are to be found. In family, social, 
business, and religious affairs the Chinese are able to coop- 
erate effectively. Note the system of markets with rami- 
fications throughout the country, the power of guilds in 
commercial life and the family solidarity already alluded to, 
if you would understand this strong asset in Chinese char- 
acter. 

The Chinese, above all other peoples, have honored schol- 
arship. It makes no difference that we smile at the old 
literati who found themselves unprepared to fit into modern 
China. The fact is that China accorded its highest honors 
only to the men who had proved by competitive examination 
that they were possessed of the best education that China 
could furnish. Change the type of training required, but 
preserve irrevocably the principle that only properly trained 
and prepared men should occupy public office, and China 
will have a civil service that cannot be excelled. 

Finally, there is one element in the political genius of 
China that should never be superseded. The absolutism 
is doomed, but the democratic basis, which meant that local 
officials were practically chosen by the local communities, 
and that each district was governed in a manner suited to 
its genius and its conditions, is that upon which alone an 
enduring republic can be built. 

The patient industry of the people, their uncomplaining 
endurance of conditions that are inevitable, their tenacity 
in holding to that which has proved itself useful, their 
ability to assimilate extraneous elements, and their recently 



THE WESTERN INFLUENCE IN CHINA 111 

demonstrated ability to adopt and adapt new methods, are 
other elements of Chinese character that should not be 
destroyed. 

III. Where China Can Learn from the West 

While China has important elements that should be pre- 
served at all hazards and can teach the West many a lesson 
of importance, it is equally true that in many points China 
can learn from the West. 

It is necessary that the individual should count for more 
in the new China. We of the West have cultivated the 
individual and have lost much of family and community 
solidarity. China, on the other hand, has so developed 
corporate responsibility as to sacrifice the individual. Take 
this instance: A man and his wife committed the awful 
crime of flogging the man's mother. The result: the pair, 
flayed alive; the grand uncle, uncle, two elder brothers and 
the head of the clan, executed; the neighbors, the woman's 
father, the head representative of the literary degree held 
by the man, flogged and banished; the prefect and district 
ruler, degraded; and the child of the criminals, given another 
name. The patriarchal family keeps the sons in tutelage 
until they have lost initiative. The man of ability, by 
the help of his family, may rise, but the ordinary individual 
counts for little, and hundreds are permitted to perish on 
public works or in time of famine and flood without compunc- 
tion. Slavery has prevailed among farm laborers and the 
sale of women and girls has excited no comment, especially 
during famines. Here is a point where Chinese customs 
may be wisely modified in western directions. Education 
has been provided for an increasing number of boys and 
girls. This must continue until all the people of China 
are made literate and increasingly intelligent. This applies 
to the women as well as to the men. Other needs are the 
actual abolition of slavery and such modification of the 
family system as shall develop in the child progressiveness, 
adaptability and efficiency. China has proved that it is 
easier to issue reform decrees than it is to secure radical 



112 EDWARD W. CAPEN 

social or political changes. This can gradually be overcome 
through increased education and the giving of opportunity 
to individuals. 

On the political side, China needs more public spirit and 
more nationalism, in contrast to provincialism. Very en- 
couraging signs of this are appearing. Many of the reform 
party have exhibited just this spirit, but the rank and file of 
office holders have not yet risen to this point. The gradual 
and often rapid deterioration in pubhc works, such as roads, 
canals, and even railways, not to mention temples and 
other public buildings, is due to a lack of public spirit that 
bodes ill for the future. The Chinese desire to be let alone 
and not be be called upon to sacrifice much even for the 
general good. The same spirit carried into another realm 
leads to provincialism. The Manchus rigidly enforced the 
rule that an official should never serve in his native province. 
This was done to lessen the possibilties of disintegration — 
and of graft, also, — that might result from an official's being 
among his own people. The reported repeal of this rule 
by the new government raises the question as to whether 
the national spirit among the officials as a body is yet strong 
enough to justify this change. 

Closely allied to this need is that of strengthening the 
central government. The late government made an earnest 
effort to stop the use of opium, which was weakening the 
country. As a part of this campaign it attempted to sup- 
press the cultivation of the poppy. Its success in this 
endeavor far surpassed all expectations. With a change in 
government, however, and the weakening of control from 
Peking, has come a serious reaction, and fields have again 
blazed with the poppy where last year wheat was growing. 
The reform of the currency, an imperative need if China is 
to become a great commercial nation, is hindered by pro- 
vincial jealousies and especially by the possibilities of graft 
and squeeze that the antiquated system, or lack of system, 
puts within the grasp of provincial officials. Railway con- 
struction is halted by provincial jealousy. The rivers are 
becoming a source of constantly increasing danger, and the 
canals are becoming less serviceable because there is no 



THE WESTERN INFLUENCE IN CHINA 113 

strong hand to insist upon repairs. It is feasible to control 
the rivers and check the awful destruction of life and prop- 
erty which now recurs at ever shorter intervals, but it 
needs an efficient central government to do it. 

Again, China needs a civil service equal to that of Great 
Britain at home and in her colonies, or even as good as that 
of the United States, imperfect as that is. Under the old 
system, graft was all but universal. Offices were bought 
and the officials were expected to live on impossible salaries 
with the understanding that all deficiencies could be wrung 
from the people or taken from the taxes at the expense of 
the central government. One of the chief causes of the 
revolution was this official corruption, but the habit of 
squeeze is so ingrained in the Chinese that it will be a hard 
struggle to raise the tone of the civil service to where it 
must be if China is to secure the funds she needs for her 
development. It is not only incorruptible officials that are 
needed, but also efficient men who can execute as well as 
plan. The weakness of the new system of education has 
been the impossibility of securing a sufficient number of 
well-trained teachers to man the schools. China must learn 
that adequate results cannot be secured from the expendi- 
ture of adequate funds, unless these are administered by 
well trained men. One of the encouraging things about 
the new regime is the appointment of competent foreign 
advisers, men who know the needs of the country, under- 
stand the difficulties of the problem and bring to bear upon 
its solution the results of generations of western experience. 

Most important of all, China must be wilhng to learn 
and adopt what is best in western experience and civiliza- 
tion. The Chinese has every reason to be proud of his 
nation; no person in the world more so. The Chinese has 
every reason to feel sensitive because of the treatment 
accorded by other nations; treatment that no self-respecting 
nation could fail to resent. But the Chinese must recog- 
nize, as the new leaders willingly do, that times have changed 
and that if China is to assume the place that is hers by right 
of history and inherent and demonstrated capacity, she 
must willingly learn from her younger but more aggressive 



114 EDWARD W. CAPEN 

rivals of the West. And when she seeks to learn from us, 
she must be quick to discern the things of real value. I 
have seen in Chinese schools most elaborate collections of 
scientific apparatus, larger than most American schools can 
boast, but they were useless because the teachers could not 
use them to advantage. Railways, factories, schools, west- 
ernized political institutions are necessary and good, but 
the Japanese have learned to their sorrow that the material 
elements of civilization are not enough, and they are now 
seeking to discover the secret of true greatness and per- 
manence. China bids fair to be spared some of this disil- 
lusionment because so many of the leaders have adopted the 
very heart of western civilization in its ethical aspects, and 
have grafted it upon the old but rather fruitless stock of 
Confucian civilization. 
This leads naturally to the last point. 

IV. How THE West Can be Most Helpful 

The most fundamental thing is this. The West must 
be willing to treat China as an equal just as rapidly as she 
demonstrates her worthiness of such treatment. The atti- 
tude of the Chinese up to within a generation was one of 
proud superciliousness. The government regarded all the 
rest of the world as barbarians. It was even claimed that 
what civilization the West possessed was derived from China. 
The West resented this attitude, and rightly so, and com- 
pelled China, at the mouth of the canon, to change, and 
then the western nations adopted a somewhat similar atti- 
tude. They forced China to open her ports, prescribed 
her customs duties, secured foreign supervision of the cus- 
toms, insisted that coast and inland trade might be carried 
on by vessels flying foreign flags, boldly plotted the dis- 
memberment of the empire, and even now in certain quar- 
ters are seeking to prevent China from strengthening her 
control of her outlying territory. The pathetic thing is 
that many of these acts were really in the interest of China. 
Nor is that all. The western people have thought China a 
good field for exploitation and in matters of concessions have 



THE WESTERN INFLUENCE IN CHINA 115 

not always played fair. The Chinese have been excluded 
from our country and maltreated here and elsewhere. The 
Chinese coolie trade while it lasted was only an improvement 
upon the old African slave trade. The white man almost 
unconsciously and automatically assumes an attitude of 
proud superiority to the Chinese in China or the West. A 
good expression of what many persons feel was the address 
from President Tyler to the Emperor of China, written in 
1843, which was so patronizing in its tone that an American 
can hardly read it now without blushing for the honor of 
his country. As the people and nations of the West have 
come to know the Chinese better, their attitude has improved, 
but yet there is enough left to make difficult the most cor- 
dial relations between China and her western sisters, and 
this lack of cordiality detracts from the influence that the 
West might easily wield. Especially in these days, when 
the new government is gradually but successfully solving 
the almost insoluble problems which confronted it, it is time 
to give tangible evidence of a sympathy with the efforts 
of the Chinese to prepare themselves for entrance as self- 
respecting partners into the family of nations. The threat ^ 
of territorial aggrandizement, the insistence upon very oner- 
ous conditions in financial transactions, make the task of 
China almost unbearably hard. It almost forces her to 
devote to military purposes a large sum of money, every 
cent of which is needed for education, the improvement of 
roads and waterways, the building of railways, the develop- 
ment of resources, and the improvement of administration. 
The powers should do more than merely cease their threats. 
One of the inducements for Japan to improve its civil and 
judicial administration was the desire to get into a position 
where it might properly demand that the foreign powers 
abandon the right of extra-territoriality. It was a proud 
day for Japan when it ceased to be an inferior state like Tur- 
key, and could look the whole world in the face as a recog- 
nized equal of the western powers. The Chinese are like- 
wise affronted by the fact that they have no jurisdiction 
over foreigners. No one can blame the powers for being 
unwilling to intrust their people to the old corrupt courts 



116 EDWARD W. CAPEN 

of China, with their barbarous penalties, their torture, and 
the Hke. Just as soon, however, as China has proved her 
wiUingness and her abihty to secure justice for all resident 
within her borders, then the powers should relieve China 
from wearing the badge of inferiority. A similar position 
should be taken with regard to foreign supervision of revenue 
and expenditure. A certain amount of supervision is proba- 
bly necessary for the sake of China itself, but it should 
be reduced to a minimum, and should disappear as rapidly 
as is compatible with safety. 

Another way in which western influence may be made 
more helpful is by improving the example that the western 
nations set China and the way in which the Chinese are 
received and treated in the West. Our civihzation is often 
brought into disrepute by its toleration of elements that 
are anything but praiseworthy. Many a foreigner, includ- 
ing Chinese, has visited this country, seen the darker side 
of our civilization, and either been corrupted or disgusted 
thereby. Such a man returns to decry the boasted supe- 
riority of the West or to exert a positively evil influence. 
Aggressive and successful efforts to remove the moral and 
social blots upon our western civilization will do much to 
commend it to others. If Chinese residents and visitors 
are treated in a just and brotherly manner and are given the 
opportunity of seeing the best sides of our western life, it 
will do much to commend western civilization to the Chi- 
nese and will furnish both incentive and direction for improv- 
ing the conditions in China. 

The West can also assist China by enlarging the educa- 
tional, medical, and philanthropic activities conducted by 
Christian agencies in that country. While the new gov- 
ernment and the people, moved by the spirit of the new era, 
will do much along these lines, these are points at which 
the people of the West can give material assistance. Expe- 
rience elsewhere proves the value even to government 
education of the presence and the competition of efficient, 
well-staffed and equipped Christian schools, which can 
accomplish more in the way of character building than is 
possible in government schools. They can train leaders, 



THE WESTERN INFLUENCE IN CHINA 117 

whether avowed Christians or not, who can contribute an 
element of upright, disinterested and self-sacrificing service 
that the secular institution finds it more difficult to secure. 
By using a certain number of western teachers, they can give 
the students a sanity and breadth of view and an appre- 
ciation of the difficulty and slowness of social development, 
that is next to impossible in a school none of the staff of 
which have a background of centuries of struggle with just 
these problems. This means that the Christian forces should 
deliberately direct their energies to the training, not only 
of distinctly religious workers, but also of Christian leaders 
in the industrial, commercial, yes, and the political life 
of the new China. There is a chance, also, by sending out 
more doctors to assist the small but increasing number of 
well trained Chinese physicians, who for many years will 
be unable to overtake the physical needs of 400,000,000 
people living under poor sanitary conditions. Then, too, 
the Christian physician can minister to the mental and spir- 
itual needs of these people and bring to them a comfort 
and inspiration that is beyond the power of the non-Chris- 
tian doctor, however competent he may be professionally. 
In the realm of Christian philanthropy there is a further 
opportunity. The call upon the spirit of brotherliness that 
arises from the poverty and squalor of millions of Chinese 
homes in thousands of villages is beyond the power of the 
present generation to meet. Experience in India and Japan 
abundantly testifies to the fact that while the non-Christian 
can imitate the activities that have been developed in the 
West under the inspiration of the Christian religion, there 
is a flavor, an atmosphere about the Christian orphanage, 
asylum, or settlement that is peculiarly its own, and that 
gives it a success beyond the reach of the non-Christian. 
A tree is known by its fruits, but we have not yet learned 
to produce the fruit apart from the tree. 

This leads naturally to the declaration of my belief that 
one of the greatest services the West can render to the new 
China is by the more vigorous effort to develop a self-sup- 
porting and self-directing Chinese church. It has already 
been noted that a goodly proportion of the leaders of the 



118 EDWARD W. CAPEN 

revolution in China are Christians and those who have 
adopted Christian ideals. They are seeking to make China 
a more righteous as well as a more powerful nation. The 
difficulty with China has not been the lack of a high ethical 
code. China has been weak, among other reasons, because 
of the lack of a moral dynamic to make those ideals realiz- 
able. A century of Christian work in China has proved 
beyond a doubt that Christianity can furnish this dynamic. 
It has changed the lives of thousands and sent them forth 
to serve their fellow countrymen. China needs many things. 
Without industrial development, without political reform, 
without a more general spread of education, the dreams of 
the new China cannot become actual. Nevertheless, if 
China gets or is given these things but fails to secure this 
new ethical power, they will count for little, as Japanese 
leaders are now coming to realize. It is at this point that 
the Christian West can make its most valuable contribu- 
tion to the life of China and through it to the life of the world. 
The doors are open now; they may later be closed. 

We have thus sketched the part that western influence 
has played in preparing the way for the radical changes that 
have occurred in China within a twelvemonth. We have 
noted some of the outstanding points of strength and of 
weakness in the Chinese people and some of the specific 
ways in which the West can be most helpful to the new 
China. It is all summed up in this: China needs the help 
of a good example and of a spirit of brotherly assistance, 
especially along ethical lines, as she is seeking to adapt her 
ancient Confucian civilization to the new environment into 
which she finds herself plunged, against her own wishes; to 
the end that the most populous as well as the oldest nation 
may have her share in the unified development of the human 
race as it struggles towards the ideal of perfect self-realiza- 
tion through a life of achievement and service. 



CHINA'S LOAN NEGOTIATIONS 

By Hon. Willard Straight, Representative of the American 
Banking Group 

It is the purpose of this paper to explain, if possible, three 
things: (1) the significance of Chinese loans; (2) the impor- 
tance of securing and retaining an American interest therein, 
and (3), the peculiar difficulties encountered in the recent 
loan negotiations. 

Dr. Arthur H. Smith, in that able and interesting work, 
Chinese Characteristics, pointed out that those who, under- 
standing the vernacular, walk in China's streets will hear the 
passersby talk of little save money. As it has been withffche 
daily life of the people so it is today with the political life of 
the nation. The question of money is all important. For 
the last ten years, and especially in the past twelve months 
which witnessed China's wonderful transformation from the 
oldest empire to the youngest republic in the world, there 
has been an incessant discussion of Chinese loans. 

China's loan history may be divided into four periods: 

The first, immediately after the Chino- Japan "War — when 
funds were secured from abroad to pay the indemnity exacted 
by Japan at its conclusion. 

The second, following the so-called "leasing years" when" 
the great powers encouraged their bankers to finance railway 
construction in the regions which they had marked out as 
their spheres of special interest, and when besides acting as 
the politico-financial agents of their governments, these 
bankers secured for the industry of their respective coun- 
tries the orders for the materials required. 

The third, following the Russo-Japanese War, when likin 
was pledged as security for loans and when a combination to 

119 



y 



120 WILLARD STRAIGHT 

which the American group was later admitted was formed by- 
British, German and French financiers for undertaking 
Chinese loans, and for sharing the orders for materials 
required for their construction. 

The fourth, and present period, in which a combination has 
been effected between the four groups named above and 
Russian and Japanese interests, for jointly financing the 
reorganization of the Chinese government. 

American bankers were first interested in Chinese finance 
in the second period, in the Hankow-Canton Railroad; for 
business, not for politics. Their rights were sold back to 
China who financed the repurchase by a loan obtained from 
the government of Hongkong, which thus for obvious politi- 
cal, because geographical, reasons, secured for British inter- 
ests a preferential right to finance the construction of this 
road in case foreign capital should later be required. 

During the third period the American group was organ- 
ized and became associated with the British, German and 
French banking groups. The American group, moreover, 
greatly contributed to the successful formation of the com- 
bination which marks the fourth period, a combination which 
is the financial expression of John Hay's ''Open Door" policy, 
and which makes of international finance a guarantee for the 
preservation, rather than an instrument for the destruction, 
of China's integrity. 

Before discussing the most recent phase of China's loan 
negotiations however, and the manner in which the Ameri- 
can group at the instance of the Department of State made 
its entry into this field, it is necessary briefly to review the 
history of the past few years, and to consider the factors in 
the creation of what has been called ''Dollar Diplomacy." 

Because of this so-called "Dollar Diplomacy," President 
Taft, and his Secretary of State, Mr. Knox, have been sub- 
jected to no small measure of criticism. The administration 
one hears has formed an unholy alliance with the Octopus; 
and Wall Street, the property scape-goat of our national 
political drama, is accused of seducing a reluctant and hith- 
erto well-domesticated government into the maelstrom of 
international financial adventure. 



china's loan negotiations 121 

As if this were not sufficient, sober and intelligent journals 
have demanded why American capital should seek foreign 
fields when there is so much work to be done at home. 
Others admitting the desirabihty of foreign investment and 
the possible necessity of diplomatic support for those who 
undertake it, have objected to the administration's assist- 
ing certain institutions in Wall Street instead of American 
bankers in general. It must be remembered, however, 
that the success of any association of American capitalists 
undertaking this business depends primarily on their being 
of such standing as command respect from financial groups 
abroad and upon their willingness and ability to bear the 
expense of representation through tedious and too often 
unremunerative negotiations. Without these qualifications 
American bankers are not equipped to become the instru- 
ments which our government requires to assist in the exten- 
sion of our foreign trade. 

Another section of the press hails each and every over- 
sea venture with indiscriminate enthusiasm and rhetorically 
preens the feathers of the Bird of Freedom, sneering at or 
condemning our rivals, and lauding American enterprise with 
an impartial disregard of the real facts. 

There has been too much unjust criticism, too much 
unwarranted praise, and too general a lack of candid exposi- 
tion and intelligent comprehension of the reasons for, and 
possibilities of, "Dollar Diplomacy." 

''Dollar Diplomacy" is a logical manifestation of our 
national growth, and the rightful assumption by the United 
States of a more important place at the council table of 
nations. Our export trade is constantly increasing and 
foreign markets are becoming each year more and more 
necessary to our manufacturers. The new policy aims not 
only to protect those Americans already engaged in foreign 
trade but to promote fresh endeavor and by diplomatic 
action pave the way for those who have not yet been, but who 
will later be, obliged to sell either capital or goods abroad. 

European diplomacy is engaged in solving a maze of com- 
plicated questions immediately political, ultimately commer- 
cial in character. France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Austria 



122 WILLARD STRAIGHT 

and Japan are endeavoring to acquire fresh fields for coloni- 
zation or to create preferential markets for their merchants. 
Great Britain with her world-wide possessions is involved 
directly or indirectly, in almost every international question 
that arises and with these powers too, diplomacy has for 
years been of the "Dollar" variety. 

International rivalry of this character, however, is found 
only in those countries whose native administrations are 
either decrepit or which are still militarily too weak to secure 
that consideration, which, unfortunately, depends not upon 
international equity, but upon the power of self-protection. 
In such lands a government desiring to secure a market for 
its nationals must because of the pressure of its competitors 
either acquire territory or insist on an equality of commercial 
opportunity. It must either stake out its own claim, or 
induce other interested powers to preserve the "open door." 
There is no middle course. This is a statement not of 
benevolent theories, but of political facts. 

The people of the United States do not desire fresh terri- 
tory over seas. The pohcy of our government has been 
to secure for American merchants the "open door." Ameri- 
can industry has until recently been too much engaged by our 
own domestic expansion seriously to set about the establish- 
ment of foreign markets. A far-seeing administration has 
\ therefore inaugurated a new policy, the alliance of diplomacy, 
with industry, commerce and finance. 

This is "Dollar Diplomacy." It has been active in vari- 
ous ways. In South America it has aided our merchants 
and manufacturers. In Central America, politics have 
played a more important part, and the Department of State 
has attempted to bring about financial reform in these 
smaller republics, and to prevent the recurrence of the 
revolutions whose leaders have almost without exception 
been actuated solely by a desire to acquire control of the 
national revenues. In China certain very tangible results 
have been accomplished and it is to give a more accurate 
conception of this much discussed, but little understood 
subject, that this paper is written. 



china's loan negotiations 123 

Prior to 1894, China had practically no foreign debt. In 
1894-1896, however, she borrowed extensively from England, 
France and Germany, to finance the war with Japan, and to 
provide the indemnity which she was forced to pay at its 
conclusion. These loans were secured upon the collections 
of the Imperial Maritime Customs, a Chinese service under 
the control of that able Irishman, Sir Robert Hart. In 1898, 
however, China made a number of contracts for loans for 
railway construction, with British, German, French, Belgian 
and American syndicates. Under all these agreements the 
bankers were entitled to a certain share in the profits of the 
lines, which were themselves to be mortgaged as security 
for the loans, and provision was made in almost every case 
for joint foreign and Chinese management. The railway 
materials and rolling stock required were purchased from the 
manufacturers of the countries whose bankers undertook to 
issue these loans. 

The cession of Formosa to Japan at the termination of the 
Chino-Japanese War, the occupation of Chinese territory by 
Russia, Germany, France and England, in 1897-1898 and 
the exchange of "diplomatic notes" between these powers 
regarding the protection of their respective interests in 
China, together with the signature of the railway agreements 
mentioned gave rise to a discussion throughout the Euro- 
pean and American press of the imminent breakup of China 
and the partition of this ancient empire into ''spheres of 
influence." 

In China the broad significance of these events was prob- 
ably appreciated by but few, even of the leading statesmen 
of the time, but these men, nevertheless, and the gentry and 
official classes throughout the provinces felt that their coun- 
try was becoming dominated by the foreigner. Seaports 
had been wrested from them, and, not content with this, the 
strangers were binding their helpless motherland with rails 
of steel. 

For some years prior to 1898, the Empress Dowager had 
been in comparative retirement. The attempt of the young 
Emperor, Kuang Hsii, however, under the advice of Kang 
Yu Wei, suddenly to introduce widespread reform, brought 



124 WILLARD STRAIGHT 

this redoubtable lady to the front once more. Popular 
discontent, fomented by bigoted and ignorant officials 
was winked at if not encouraged by a court which feared 
that the extension of western influence might bring about 
administrative changes which would curtail their opportuni- 
ties for illicit gain. The Boxer outbreak was the result, and ^ 
in 1900 the reactionaries made one last attempt to sweep 
the foreigner into the sea. Peking was occupied by the 
allied troops, the Manchu court fled to Sianfu, and China 
was saddled with a fresh debt of about £60,000,000 to pay 
for her mid-summer madness. This was charged upon the 
Maritime Customs, upon certain likin collectorates and 
upon the salt gabelle. 

In 1898-1899 the American Secretary of State, John Hay, 
anxious to prevent the partition of China and to protect the 
interests of general foreign trade against discrimination in 
the portions of Chinese territory already occupied by foreign 
powers, enunciated his "Open Door" policy. His proposi- 
tion, favorably received at first and reaffirmed in the negoti- 
ations which followed the relief of Peking, won the adherence 
of other nations not because of any particular consideration 
for China but because of their mutual jealousy and their 
realization that partition would impose upon them responsi- 
bilities which they might find it difficult to bear. 

They did not therefore surrender the ports which they had 
forcibly leased, but their acceptance of the "Open Door" 
doctrine nevertheless marked the beginning of a financial 
and commercial, rather than territorial, definition of their 
respective interests. The Russo-Chinese Bank had been *^ 
created in 1895 as the chief instrument of Russian ambition 
in her Manchurian adventure. This institution and the 
Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, the Deutsch-Asiatische 
Bank, the Banque de ITndo-Chine and the Yokohama Specie 
Bank, now became more and more generally recognized as 
indispensable financial means to the political and commercial 
ends of their respective governments. 

In contrast to the peaceful rivalry in China proper, the 
situation in Manchuria became more and more threatening. 
Russia despite her diplomatic assurances to the contrary 



china's loan negotiations 125 

did not evacuate this region occupied after the Boxer trouble. 
She persisted moreover in an attempt to acquire control over 
northern Korea as well, until Japan, avowedly the cham- 
pion of China's integrity and the ''Open Door" for the trade 
of all nations, declared war. 

Relieved by the defeat of Russia Peking breathed more 
easily. This satisfaction, however, was short lived, for the 
Chinese soon became convinced that Japan not unnaturally 
intended to reap for herself and not assure to China, the 
fruits of her splendid victory. She had taken from Russia 
the Liaotung Peninsula, from which she had herself been 
ousted after the China-Japan War. More than that, she 
succeeded to Russia's rights in the railway running north 
from Port Arthur and in the coal mines at Fushun. 

"When His Excellency Yuan Shih Kai, now President of 
the Chinese Republic, went to Tientsin as Viceroy of Chihli 
Province, he had with him a number of officials, notably 
Tang Shao Yi and Lia ng Tun JY en. who had been recalled 
from America in the early 80's, but who had not after their 
return to China been given much share in the direction of 
affairs. Yuan soon found himself at the head of what might 
be called a "Reform" party, and these subordinates of his, 
able, accomplished and well versed in American and Euro- 
pean methods greatly aided him in instilling new force and 
intelligence into the Peking government. Administrative 
reforms were demanded, the Chinese press, hitherto practi- 
cally non-existent, began to assert itself, and young men 
educated abroad returned to direct a "rights recovery" 
agitation which soon developed anti-Manchu propaganda and 
which found its final expression in the revolution of last year. 

Peking became concerned about Japan's activity in Man- 
churia. Their Excellencies Hsti Shih Chang and Tang 
Shao Yi were sent to Mukden to estabUsh, if possible, Chi- 
nese authority throughout the Three Eastern Provinces, and 
to exercise the right to develop this region under Chinese aus- 
pices, assured by the Portsmouth Treaty and the so-called 
Komura Convention, signed between China and Japan in 
the autumn of 1905. 

They had no intention of interfering with the treaty rights 
acquired by Japan, but they wished, if possible, to induce 



126 WILLARD STRAIGHT 

British, German, French and American capitalists to invest 
in the development of this region. 
\ In the autmnn of 1907, Lord ffrench, representing Messrs. 
Pauling and Company, the well known firm of English con- 
tractors signed with the Manchurian Viceroy a contract for 
the construction of a railroad from Hsinmintun a point on 
the Peking-Mukden Railway, to Fakumen, with the ulti- 
mate object of extending this line north to Tsitsihar on the 
Chinese Eastern Railway. Japan protested on the ground 
that the construction of such a road would violate the pro- 
visions of the secret protocol attached to the Komura Con- 
vention, stipulating that China should build no railway 
parallel to or competing with, the South Manchurian Road. 

Subsequently in the summer of 1908, His Excellency Tang 
Shao Yi signed a Memorandum of Agreement for a loan of 
$20,000,000, to be undertaken by American capitalists for 
the establishment of a bank which was to act as the financial 
_, agent of the Manchurian administration for development 
work. This marked the beginning of the negotiations which 
led to the organization of the American group, the signature 
of the Chinchou-Aigun Railway loan agreement, the con- 
clusion of the currency loan and the formation of the present 
six-power group. 

In May, 12DS, Congress had approved President Roose- 
velt's recommendation that the United States return to 
China a portion of the Boxer indemnity. Senator Root, 
then Secretary of State, and His Excellency W. W. Rockhill, 
then American Minister to China, suggested that the remit- 
ted funds should be expended in financing the education of 
Chinese students in the United States. 

His Excellency Tang Shao Yi was appointed Special 
Ambassador, ostensibly to thank the American government 
for its generous action. His real mission was to negotiate 
the Manchurian loan with American bankers. On arriving 
in Washington, however, he advocated a much more com- 
prehensive scheme. He proposed to Secretary Root that 
China should issue a loan of $300,000,000 to be utilized for a 
program of industrial development, for currency reform, and 
to finance the Chinese administration during the period fol- 



china's loan negotiations 127 

lowing the intended abolition of likin and until the consent 
of all the powers to an increase in the customs tariff was 
obtained. Mr. Tang desired an international loan in which 
he wished the United States to take the lead and Mr. Root j 
promised to support this plan. With the authority of Mr. ' 
Root and the sanction of President Roosevelt the matter 
was brought to the attention of American bankers, but it was 
necessary temporarily to abandon the project owing to the 
dismissal of His Excellency Yuan Shih Kai from the high - 
office which he then held in Peking. 

Following the inauguration of Mr. Taft, however, the 
President and Mr. Knox became keenly interested and the 
Department of State desired, as soon as an opportune 
moment should arise, to reopen the question of customs 
revision and likin abolition, as well as currency reform, in 
accordance with the stipulations of our coromercial treaty , 
with China of 1903. With a view to taking up the proposed 
loan at the proper time, the American bankers, who have 
been interested, closely followed the situation. 

In May, 1909, it became known that the British, French 
and German financial groups were about to conclude an 
agreement, to be secured on provincial revenues, for the 
construction of the Hukuang Railways, i.e., the lines from 
Hankow into Szechuan and from Hankow to Canton. 

The Department of State held the promise of the Chinese 
government that if any foreign money were required for the 
construction of the Hankow-Szechuan Line one-half should 
be secured from American and one-half from British capital- 
ists. The fact that internal taxes, upon whose abolition the [' 
contemplated increase of the Maritime Customs tariff ' 
depended, were being pledged as security for the new rail- 
way loan, directly affected the fulfillment of the engage- 
ment which the Department of State had made to assist 
China in obtaining from the other powers their consent to 
customs revision. 

In order, therefore, that the United States might be en- 
titled to a practical, and not merely a theoretical, voice in 
this matter, as well as to assure to American manufacturers 
a share in the profits of Chinese railway construction and the 



128 WILLARD STRAIGHT 

business arising therefrom, it was essential that representa- 
tive American capitahsts should participate in the Hukuang 
loan. The Department of State offered this opportunity 
to the bankers already interested in the loan proposed 
by Mr. Tang Shao Yi and the American Group was organ- 
ized creating an instrument which it was hoped might 
enable the Administration not only to further the interests 
of American trade but effectively to assist China in obtain- 
ing the consent of the powers to the customs revision she so 
greatly desired. 

In the autumn of 1909, inunediately following the organi- 
zation of the American Group, a preliminary agreement was 
entered into with the Viceroy of Manchuria, by the American 
group and Messrs. Pauling and Company, for the construc- 
tion of the Chinchou-Aigun Railway. Much has been writ- 
ten regarding this subject and in Europe especially, our 
government has been criticised for the so-called Man- 
churian "Neutralization Proposals" advanced toward the 
close of 1909, and which were politely declined by Japan and 
Russia at the beginning of the following year. Although the 
story of the inception of this project does not perhaps fall 
directly within the scope of this paper, it may be well here 
to recite certain facts in connection therewith which, had 
they been known, might have given a very different complex- 
ion to journalistic comment at the time. 

The scheme of bringing the Russian and Japanese rail- 
roads in Manchuria under the control of a great international 
company was first conceived by the late Mr. E. H. Harri- 
man, as a factor necessary to the realization of his dream of 
creating a ''round the world" transportation system. 
/ At the close of the Russo-Japanese War, Mr. Harriman 
visited the Far East. In September, 1905, working closely 
with the Hon. Lloyd Griscom, then American Minister 
to Japan, he drew up with the late Prince Ito and Count, 
now Prince, Katsura then Premier of Japan, a memorandum 
stipulating that the portion of the Chinese Eastern R. R. 
from Kwangchengtze to Port Arthur and Dalny (now known 
as the South Manchurian Railway), which had been acquired 
by Japan from Russia under the provisions of the Ports- 



china's loan negotiations 129 

mouth Treaty, should be financed by an American loan 
and operated under joint Japanese and American direc- 
tion. 

This project was never realized. It was blocked by the 
late Marquis Komura, who raised what appeared to be 
insuperable objections to Mr. Harriman's plan. 

Mr. Harriman however did not give up his idea. Agents 
of the Russian government during 1906-1907 proposed to 
certain American bankers that they purchase from Russia the 
portion of the Chinese Eastern Railway which remained in 
Russian hands at the end of the war, i.e., the line running 
across northern Manchuria, with its branch from Harbin 
south to Kwangchengtze. The Russians stated that they 
were willing to sell in case Japan also could be persuaded 
to dispose of the South Manchurian Railway. 

In this connection it should be remembered that the agree- 
ment between China and the Russo-Asiatic Bank for the 
construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway, provided that 
China might repurchase the line after 36 ye ars and that it 
would in any case revert to China at the termination of an 
eighty-year period. 

Japan under the Komura Convention had been recognized 
by China as successor to the Russian rights, under this agree- 
ment, to the portion of the road acquired after the war. 

It was proposed therefore that an international syndicate 
should anticipate the operation of this clause and repurchase 
the line on China's behalf, at this time, rather than later. 

The scheme was discussed with Mr. Tang, during his 
stay in Washington, in the autumn of 1908 and he expressed 
the opinion that China would be glad to cooperate. An 
important Japanese financier who had been informally 
advised of the plan, however, stated that Japan would be 
unwilling to acquiesce therein. 

Notwithstanding this fact the negotiations with Russia 
were continued and, in the summer of 1909, Mr. Harriman, 
through a leading Paris banker, approached M. Kokovtseff, 
then Minister of Finance, now Premier, of Russia, and was 
assured that on his return from a trip to Vladivostock, upon 
which he was about to start, M. Kokovtseff would recom- 



130 WILLARD STRAIGHT 

mend the sale of the Russian Railway. This he did in a pub- 
lic address on his return to Moscow. 

The existence of the Harriman memorandum, and the 
attitude of the Russian Minister of Finance aside from the 
broader political considerations involved, justified the Ameri- 
can proposals. An entente had been arranged between 
^ Japan and Russia, however, in 1907. Both powers were 
greatly disturbed by the neutralization scheme and thanks 
to the understanding reached by M. Isvolsky the Russian 
Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Baron Motono the Jap- 
anese Ambassador in St. Petersburg, they refused to join in 
Secretary Knox's plan. Russian objections to the Chin- 
chou-Aigun project, as well as the conditions imposed by 
Japan as precedent to her participation therein, moreover 
prevented the construction of this road. 

Furthermore lest there should be any further misunder- 
standing as to their attitude these powers in the convention 
of July 4, 1910, agreed jointly to safeguard their respective 
interests in Manchuria — an arrangement which, though 
undoubtedly a natural one, was not, it must be admitted, 
calculated to assure to China herself the right to develop this 
territory. 

In May, 1910, an arrangement was reached with the 
French, German and British groups for the participation of 
the American group in the Hukuang loan. At this time the 
three groups first mentioned invited the American group to 
join them in the combination which they had effected the 
year before for undertaking Chinese loans. 

This invitation was later accepted and an intergroup 
agreement was signed in November, 1910. 

On October 27 of that year the American Group had con- 
/ eluded a preliminary agreement for a £10,000,000 loan, to 
finance China's currency reform and to undertake certain 
industrial enterprises in Manchuria. 

When the American Group was first organized, and actively 
supported by the State Department, was seeking participa- 
tion in the Hukuang loan. Secretary Knox had declared that 
/the American Government believed that the interests of 
/ China and of international trade with that country could best 



china's loan negotiations 131 

be served by the friendly cooperation of the great lending 
nations and their banking groups. 

It was in pursuance of this policy that the American group 
entered into the combination with the other groups and 
admitted them to equal participation in the currency loan, 
the final contract for which was signed on April 15, 1911. 

The final agreement for the Hukuang loan was also signed 
with China by the same parties on May 20 of that year. 

In the present negotiations with China for the reorganiza- 
tion loan, as in fact in all loan negotiations during the past 
few years, the banking groups have found their greatest 
difficulty in the settlement of the question of "control." 
It may be well therefore before giving the story of the recent 
negotiations to review briefly the history of this much dis- 
cussed term. 

V The word "control" has for some time commonly been 
used to denote the guarantees against improper expenditure 
of loan funds which the banking groups, in a greater or less 
degree, have insisted upon securing, to which the Chinese 
government has from time to time reluctantly agreed, and 
constantly endeavored to modify. 

"Control" in the at present accepted sense of the word was 
first embodied in the agreement made by the Chinese govern- 
ment in 1898, with the British and Chinese Corporation, 
for a loan to the Imperial Railways of North China. 

Under this agreement, and in several others concluded at 
about this time, the lenders, besides securing a first mort- 
gage on the railway whose construction they financed, were 
entitled to a share in the profits of the line. 

For this reason and also because of the inexperience of the 
Chinese in railway matters, the bankers required assurances 
that the loaned funds should be so expend ed that the mort- 
gaged property would constitute a suflacient security. 

They furthermore obtained a certain share in the manage- 
ment of these lines in order that there should be secured 
therefrom an adequate return (to a certain percentage of 
which the banks were entitled), and to prevent the adminis- 
trative inefficiency and fraud which they feared if the opera- 
tion of these railways were placed entirely in Chinese hands. 



132 WILLAKD STRAIGHT 

The original railway loan agreements embodying the pro- 
visions above described were all concluded prior to the Boxer 
outbreak of 1900. 

The final Shanghai-Nanking and Canton-Kowloon Agree- 
ments (the Canton-Kowloon Agreement slightly modified 
the "Shanghai-Nanking" terms) confirming these stipula- 
tions were signed in 1904 and 1907 respectively. The 
Tientsin-Pukow loan agreement concluded in 1908, how- 
ever, substantially altered these conditions. 

Its signature marked the first recognition by the banks of 
the increasing efficiency of the "Young China" party. 
These men demanded the radical modification of the old 
loan terms. They considered "control" subversive of 
China's sovereign rights and flattered by the blandishments 
of rival foreign interests, they were determined to exact from 
the world a consideration similar to that accorded Japan 
after years of patriotic self-sacrifice and conscientious en- 
deavor. The avowed purpose of these officials to weaken 
the hold of the foreigner on China was heartily applauded 
throughout the provinces. It served as a patriotic issue on 
which an appeal could be made to the masses and a cloak 
under which the provincial gentry could cover their real 
purpose, which was to restrict the extension of the Peking 
government's authority by railways built with foreign loans, 
or otherwise, and their determination that if foreign loans 
were made, the chances for peculation should not be monop- 
olized by the metropolitan mandarins. 

Under the Tientsin-Pukow contract the Chinese govern- 
ment, by a cash payment redeemed the right held by the 
banks under the original agreement signed in 1898, to a 
share in the profits of the railway. No mortgage on the 
line was given. The loan service was to be met from the 
earnings of the road or from certain provincial taxes; and in 
this agreement it was for the first time stipulated that, in 
case of default on the loan service, the hypothecated reve- 
nues should be administered by the Maritime Customs 
Service. The principle of j oint management was abandoned. 
The banking groups, however, insisted that the Chinese 
government should employ foreign engineers for the con- 



china's loan negotiations 



133 



struction of the line, and during the life of the loan, and 
that requisitions on loan funds specifying the purposes for 
which these sums were to be applied should be signed by 
the director general. The construction accounts of the 
railway were to be open to examination by foreign audi- 
tors to be appointed by the banks. Under former loan 
agreements the auditors had been empowered to stop the 
withdrawal of funds in case the Chinese officials were 
found guilty of peculation. This authority was not con- 
ferred by the Tientsin-Pukow contract and the effect of 
this modification soon became apparent. 

The so-called "Tientsin-Pukow" terms, however, did not 
prove to be an effective guarantee against "graft." 

From the commencement of the construction of this line 
there have been numerous scandals, the most flagrant instance 
resulting in the degradation of the director general and a 
number of his subordinates. The cost of construction has 
far exceeded even the most liberal estimates, and the loan 
service will therefore constitute a heavy charge on the rev- 
enues of the hne. 

Owing to the unsatisfactory operation of the so-called 
"Tientsin-Pukow" terms, negotiations were conducted in 
the winter of 1908-1909 between the British, German and 
French groups and their respective governments with a 
view to reaching an understanding as to the degree of "con- 
trol" to be demanded from China as a condition precedent to 
future loans. 

There are different versions as to the exact course of events 
in China at this time. It is, however, sufficient to state that 
in conducting pour-parlers with the Chinese authorities for a 
loan to construct the Canton-Hankow Railway,^ the repre- 
sentative of the British and Chinese Corporation at Peking 
refused to agree to "Tientsin-Pukow" terms and insisted on 
more effective "control." The representative of the Ger- 
man group, however, accepted these conditions and secured 
the contract. The diplomatic protests and recriminations 
amongst the bankers which followed resulted in a compro- 

1 British capital had obtained a "preference" for financing the construc- 
tion of this road. (See § 3, page 2.) 



134 WILLARD STRAIGHT 

mise under which the British and Chinese Corporation was 
subordinated to the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, which 
with its French associates, combined with the German group, 
to negotiate a loan to cover not only the Hankow-Canton 
but the Hankow-Szechuan Railways. The agreement was 
initialled on the sixth of June, 1909, and the "control" 
provisions accepted by the banks were similar to those 
embodied in the Tientsin-Pukow Agreement. 

The inclusion of the loan for the construction of the Han- 
kow-Szechuan Railway in this operation entitled American 
interests to the participation which the American group 
eventually secured. 

Rivalry between the British and German groups had 
enabled the Chinese in the original Hukuang Agreement to 
secure "Tientsin-Pukow" terms despite the fact that the 
operation thereof had demonstrated that more stringent 
"control" provisions were needed. 

Furthermore, during the year which elapsed before an 
agreement was finally reached between the British, German 
and French groups and the American group, there was 
an ever-increasing "anti-loan" agitation in the provinces 
through which the Hukuang lines were to be constructed. 
ProAdncial railway companies^ were formed and secured from 
the vacillating Peking government rights which violated 
the terms of the agreement initialled with the "Tripartite 
Banks," and in which the Chinese had agreed the American 
group should be given a participation. 

The National Assembly, the forerunner of the proposed 
Chinese Parliament was convoked for the first time in the 
autumn of 1910. Its members from the outset interested 
themselves in the question of finance and showed a determi- 

^ Considerable sums, quite insufficient however to build the railways in 
question, were secured by popular subscription, and in Szechuan province 
by taxation also. Construction work was commenced, and abandoned, 
and in a number of well authenticated cases the funds obtained by the com- 
panies were either lost by the directors thereof, who speculated heavily 
in the Shanghai "Rubber Boom," or stolen by more simple and direct 
methods. The demonstrated inability of the provincial companies to do 
the work they had undertaken was used by the imperial government ta 
justify its very sound policy of railway "nationalization." 



china's loan negotiations 135 

nation to scrutinize government expenditures, which the 
bankers felt would serve to restrict, even though it might 
not prevent, official peculation. 

The National Assembly, moreover, was entitled to pass 
upon all government loans and was known to be opposed to a 
foreign loan for the construction of the Hukuang railways by 
the central government, instead of by the provincial com- 
panies. Sheng Kung Pao, Minister of communications, 
was determined, however, to build the Hukuang lines, and 
in response to the protests of the Assembly he pointed out 
that in negotiating the loan in question, he was fulfilling 
an obligation entered into in 1909, prior to the convoca- 
tion of the Assembly, by the Grand Councillor Chang Chih 
Tung. He was obliged therefore to adhere as strictly as 
possible to the terms of the original contract, and would not 
and could not have consented to any new "control" con- 
ditions at this time. 

In this arrangement the bankers acquiesed, feeling that 
the punishment inflicted after the Tientsin-Pukow frauds 
and the surveillance of the National Assembly over the ex- 
penditure of loan funds, as well as the difficulties by which, 
the central government was confronted, justified them/ 
in confirming the "control" provisions of the original agree-) 
ment. 

The Currency Loan was of a different character, coming 
under the head of ''government" or "administrative" loans. 
Practically the only loans previously falling within this 
category had been required to pay indemnities abroad and 
there was no necessity therefore that the lenders should 
exercise "control" over their expenditure. The currency 
loan, however, was to carry out a definite program and 
not for general administrative purposes. The four banking 
groups now acting in harmony believed some form of super- 
vision to be necessary, and it was thought that the "control" 
machinery devised for railway loans, could, with certain 
modifications be utilized for assuring the proper application 
of the borrowed funds under the currency reform program. 

The Chinese had reluctantly agreed to various control 
provisions in railway loan agreements, but they feared 



\! 



136 WILLAKD STRAIGHT 

that to admit the principle of supervision over administrative 
expenditures would be to pave the way for foreign control 
over China's general finances. An arrangement was finally- 
made, however, whereby China submitted to the groups 
her program of currency reform for their acceptance, and 
agreed to expend the loan funds only in accordance therewith, 
to publish quarterly reports of disbursements made, and to 
engage a foreign expert to assist the Bm*eau of Currency 
Reform. 

The loan has not been issued but it is open to question 
whether this "control," in practice, would have prevented 
peculation, and insured the proper expenditure of loan funds, 
and the effective operation of the currency reform program. 
Immediately following the outbreak at Wuchang, on 
October 11, 1911, which marked the beginning of the revolu- 
tion^ in China the representatives of the four banking groups 
in Peking were approached regarding a loan to the imperial 
government. The Manchus, however, seemed unable to 
cope with the rapidly developing revolt and the groups were 
unwilling to advance funds to a government whose contin- 
ued existence seemed problematical. Their governments 
moreover decided to observe absolute neutrality as between 
the contending factions and refused to approve any loans to 
either side. The financial history of the Revolution has 
V been ably told by Mr. George Bronson Rea in the Far 

^ It has been generally stated that the disturbances in Szechuan province 
in August and September last marked the beginning of the revolutionary- 
movement. This is not the case except that the general unrest created 
thereby contributed to the rapid spread of anti-Manchu sentiment. The 
Szechuan agitation was directed against the "nationalization" of rail- 
ways, and the banking groups therefore have been accused of being the 
indirect cause of the revolt. This again is not true. The agitation waa 
not against railway "nationalization" which the most intelligent leaders 
« of Chinese public opinion recognized as desirable, bu|_aigam^t-Uiejiianner 
I in- ghich it was carried int flj&ffect. Shung Kung Pao, the Minister of Com- 
munication, upon the signature of the Hukuang Loan Agreement took steps 
to repurchase the rights of the provincial companies in accordance with 
the "nationalization" plan. Incidentally, it is reported on thg best author - 

r) rtj^ he bought up the major portion of some of the provincial bonds, and 
offered to redeem them at par. He did not acquire control of the Szechuan 
bonds and therefore offered only 60 per cent on the face value. Hence the 
riots. 



china's loan negotiations 137 

Eastern Review and in this account those who are interested 
may read of the various negotiations, practically all of them 
unsuccessful, undertaken by both the imperial and republican 
authorities during this period. 

The Prince Regent of China retired on December 6, 1911, 
turning over the reins of government to Yuan Shih Kai, 
whom he had dismissed three years before at a time when 
he stood out, as he does today, as the only man capable of 
coping with China's domestic troubles and the difficulties 
by which she is threatened from abroad. 

The Emperor abdicated on February 12, 1912, and on 
March 10 Yuan Shih Kai was inaugurated as provisional 
president of the Chinese Republic. 

The present loan negotiations with the Chinese govern- 
ment were commenced in the middle of February, when the 
acting Minister of Finance, His Excellency Chou Tzu Chi, 
approached the representatives of the so-called ''Four 
Groups" (i.e., British, German, French and American) at 
Peking, and asked for an immediate loan. , 

On February 26, Mr. Tang Shao Yi, representing the 
republican authorities at Nanking, arrived in Peking for the 
purpose of arranging a coalition government. On the follow- 
ing day, at Mr. Tang's invitation, the representatives of the 
four groups discussed with him the question of the loan 
broached some days before. 

Mr. Tang stated the inmiediate requirements of the 
Chinese governmenV and requested the representatives to 
ask their groups to finance the same. In addition he dis- 
cussed the Chinese revenues available as security for a 
large loan to reorganize the Chinese administration, and to 
initiate a scheme of commercial and industrial development. 
He asked the representatives how much China could borrow 
on this security, and finally, himself suggested the figure 
of £60,0Q0,000, which he wished the banks to loan in five 
annual instalments of £12,000,000 each. 

Pursuant to Mr. Tang's request for an immediate advance, 
the groups on the following day paid in Shanghai the sum 
of Taels 2,000,000, to meet the urgent requirements of the 
Nanking authorities. 



V 



138 WILLARD STRAIGHT 

The four representatives had reported Mr. Tang's request 
to their principals in Europe and America.* No reply had 
been received when on the night of February 29 a number of 
the Chinese troops quartered in Peking mutinied, looted 
and burned portions of the city, and openly defied the author- 
ity of the provisional government. On the following day, 
March 1, it was suggested to Mr. Tang that it would be desir- 
able that he should make some statement to reassure the 
groups who were considering his proposition, regarding the 
probable effect of the outbreak, and the ability of the govern- 
ment to cope therewith. 

Mr. Tang's explanation was unsatisfactory, and the burn- 
ing and looting continued on the night of March 1. On 
March 2, acting under instructions from Yuan Shih Kai, the 
acting Minister of Finance, requested from the four groups 
an immediate advance of 1,015,000 taels. He stated in his 
letter that the President appreciated that in view of the 
critical state of affairs in Peking, the groups would not be 
prepared to lend this money without the authority of their 
governments, and requested the representatives to secure 
the necessary sanction from their ministers as soon as 
possible. 

Though Mr. Tang in order to justify the signature of the 
"Belgian loan" subsequently stated that the groups had 
refused to render assistance when approached after the 
mutiny of February 29, no other requests for immediate 
advances other than that mentioned above was received 
by the groups at this time. 

The seriousness of the situation at this time is shown by the 
fact that on the same day Mr. Tang Shao Yi had addressed 
a note to the British Minister stating that he feared the 
Peking authorities would no longer be able to control the 
situation, and requesting the Diplomatic Corps to take 

^ A number of writers on this subject have stated that on February 27 
the group representatives made a definite agreement to furnish certain 
sums. This is not true. The group representatives merely agreed to report 
Mr. Tang's proposition to their principals. They did, however, in view of 
the urgent need of funds in Nanking (it was feared that the troops might 
mutiny if not paid immediately) themselves assume the responsibility of 
making the advance of Tls. 2,000,000, referred to in the final paragraph of the 
preceding page. 



china's loan negotiations 139 

steps to assist the Chinese in preserving order. Yuan Shi- 
Kai later denied having authorized Mr. Tang to take this 
action. 

On March 9 the necessary authority having been received 
from the four governments, the groups advanced the sum 
requested under an exchange of letters, which (1) assured 
to the groups the firm option for furnishing ''the further 
monthly requirements of the Chinese government for the 
months of March, April, May and June, and if necessary, 
July and August," and (2) in view of the assistance rendered 
the Chinese government in advancing the sums mentioned 
above as well as in undertaking the contemplated advances 
for monthly requirements and maintaining Chinese credit 
on the markets of the world (by paying Chinese loan interest 
coupon charges which the Chinese government itself had 
been unable to meet), the Chinese government assured to 
the groups the firm option on the reorganization loan (pro- 
vided their terms were equally advantageous with those 
otherwise obtainable). 

From the proceeds of this projected reorganization loan 
it was intended to redeem the treasury bills, which were to be 
issued to cover the advances. 

So urgent were the needs of the Chinese government, 
that the four groups did not at this time arrange the terms 
upon which they would discount these bills, it being impos- 
sible to settle this point until after the conference in Europe 
of the four groups, which had been called for March 12. 

The terms on which the groups were prepared to under- 
take this business were not, however, communicated to the 
Chinese authorities, for on the evening of the 14th the four 
representatives learned that an agreement had that morning 
been concluded with the so-called ''Belgian group" for a loan 
of £1,000,000, carrying an option for a further large loan.^ 

* The Belgian loan was secured on the Peking-Kalgau R. R. the earn- 
ings of which together with the earnings of other "productive enter- 
prises" controlled by the Board of Communications, had been pledged 
as security for the Anglo-French loan of 1908. The British and French 
Ministers successfully protested against the alienation of this security. 
The price paid by the bankers for the Belgian loan was lower than that 
which the four groups were ready to give — but there were no "control" 
provisions in the contract. 



140 WILLARD STRAIGHT 

This transaction was completed at a time when the Presi- 
dent and Mr. Tang knew that the representatives were 
hourly expecting a definite reply from the four groups to the 
proposals made by Mr. Tang on February 27. 

k/' The signature of the ''Belgian loan" was virtually the 
first official act involving the new administration's relations 

I with foreigners. It was a clear breach of contract. The 
groups, more especially the British, French and German, 
had since the outbreak of the Revolution in October, been 
themselves advancing funds to pay interest charges on Chi- 
nese loans which they had issued. They had done this to 
protect the public to which they had sold Chinese bonds, 
and to protect the credit of China where they had very large 
1 vested interests. 
V Despite the chaotic conditions throughout the provinces, 
and the absence of any really effective authority in Peking 
the groups with the support of their governments had been 
^. ready to advance to China funds sufficient to put the Peking 
administration on its feet at a time when no public issue of 
Chinese bonds was possible, in order to do their part in 
assisting the restoration of stable conditions. 

The signature of the Belgian loan, however, affected the 
security for the large loan which the groups had been asked 
to undertake — and it carried no guarantee whatsoever that 
the funds furnished or to be furnished would be properly 
expended, it increased China's liabilities without insuring 
any increase in the effectiveness of her administration and 
instead of rehabilitating, it was calculated to prejudice, her 
credit. 

I The "Belgian loan" contract had been drawn subject to 

1 ratification by the ''Advisory Council" at Nanking. 

Despite the protest made by the four group representatives 
on March 15, Mr. Tang urged, and finally persuaded, the 
Council to ratify this agreement, on the ground that the 
four groups had refused to assist China after the outbreak 
of February 29. There is no evidence that Mr. Tang at this 
time informed the Council of the assistance which the 
groups had rendered, and were prepared to render, or of the 
existence of the letters of agreement of March 9. 



china's loan negotiations 141 

The British, German, French and American Ministers on 
March 25 formally protested against the conclusion of the 
"Belgian" loan. Mr. Tang Shao Yi, then prime minister in 
the newly organized Cabinet, nevertheless attempted to 
secure further funds from the ''Belgian" group. This 
failing, the Chinese government on April 15, replied to the 
Minister's protest describing the signature of the ''Belgian" 
loan — and the violation of the letters of agreement of March 
9, as a "misunderstanding" and requesting the ministers to 
instruct the group representative to resume negotiations 
with the premier on his return to Peking. 

The four ministers refused to accept the explanation 
offered, and insisted that the government should admit its 
breach of contract with the four groups." 

This condition was accepted and negotiations were re- 
sumed. During the next few weeks the groups paid over 
further amounts, making the total sum advanced 12,100,000 
taels, or approximately £1,800,000. Agreements covering 
these later advances were signed on MayJ /T, and Jimg_12^ 
under which, after considerable difficulty, the Chinese had 
been persuaded to agree to the safeguards which the groups 
considered essential to assure the application of the loan 
funds to the payment of troops and to the other purposes 
for which they were borrowed. 

At the request of their respective governments the original 
four groups with the approval of Yuan Shih Kai had agreed 
to admit banking interests designated by the Russian and 
Japanese governments, to a participation in these transac- 
tions, and after protracted and most delicate negotiations 
an agreement was reached between the six groups on June 
20, 1912, in Paris, regarding the conditions upon which they 
were prepared jointly to undertake the proposed reorgani- 
zation loan to China. 

The groups were presented with the problem of financing 

•The "Belgian" group included the Russo-Asiatic Bank which was 
later designated by the Russian Government to participate in the "six 
power" syndicate. Under the Paris agreement of June 20, 1912, the mem- 
bers of the "Belgian" group were recognized by the combination as mem- 
bers of the "Russian" group. 



142 WILLARD STRA.IGHT 

the reconstruction of China on conditions which would be 
attractive to the bond purchasing pubhc despite the dis- 
organized condition of that country. To appreciate the 
difficulties the six groups were obliged to take into consider- 
ation, it is necessary to summarize the situation existing at 
this time. 

They had been requested by China to furnish roughly 
10,000,000 taels or £1,300,000 a month for six months and to 
provide other sums making the aggregate amount to be 
advanced 80,000,000 taels or about £10,000,000. 

It would have been impossible to issue a Chinese loan at 
this time except at a figure so low as to prejudice the quota- 
tions for Chinese bonds already on the market, in the hands 
of the public not of the groups. To furnish the smns immedi- 
ately required therefor the banks would have been obliged 
to discount treasury bills, which they would have either had 
to hold themselves, or dispose of to a very limited clientele. 

These advances were required to pay the army, to finance 
the disbandment of superfluous troops, and to meet the cur- 
rent expenses of the government. The large loan was to 
be expended to redeem the treasury bills, to clear off arrears 
in China's indemnity and loan services, and to meet certain 
pressing outstanding obligations. Mr. Tang proposed to 
use the balance to make up the loss of likin, which he desired 
immediately to abolish, pending the consent of the powers to 
an increase in the customs tariff. In addition he had cer- 
tain vague schemes for railway construction, afforestation, 
and the establishment of mills of various sorts. 

For the advances and large loan requested the Chinese 
government proposed to pledge the salt gabelle as security. 
The service of the Boxer indemnity is a first charge on this 
revenue. It was estimated however that it now yields 
Taels 47,000,000 per annum — and could be increased to at 
least half as much again if honestly collected.^ 

' Experience at Tientsin and Tsingtao has shown the enormous increase 
that might be obtained were this tax properly administered. In Tientsin 
a single station collected in six months as much revenue as the entire dis- 
trict had yielded in a year. At Tsingtao the collections of a station placed 
under foreign direction were at once increased six-fold. 



china's loan negotiations 143 

The Chinese goveriunent at this time was powerless to 
collect the taxes which it offered as security and was unable 
to meet her indemnity and loan payments, to pay troops or 
to finance its current administrative expenses and its perma- 
nence was by no means assured. 

During the course of the negotiations, from February to 
June, the Chinese officials had shown little appreciation of 
the magnitude of their financial task and had evinced little 
ability in dealing effectively therewith. 

The groups nevertheless had advanced 12,100,000 taels 
in order to enable the administration to meet its most urgent 
needs and to prevent the disorders and mutinies which it 
was feared would occur unless funds, which the government 
could not secure from its own people, were obtained. 

These advances had been made subject to certain condi- 
tions to insure their proper application to the purposes for 
which they were borrowed yet the Chinese officials charged 
with their expenditure had placed every obstacle in the way 
of a proper and efficient audit, to which they had agreed. 

Patriotic Chinese, proud of their Republic and hopeful and 
confident of its future may regret the necessity of including 
such facts in this statement. These men, however, if they 
be fair minded, must admit that the banking groups, no 
matter how friendly they might be to China, would not have 
been warranted in disregarding them. 

Because of these facts the groups were unwilling to under- 
take the business without the joint support of their respec- 
tive governments. Because of these facts, moreover, they 
deemed it possible to proceed with advances and to under- 
take the reorganization loan only on certain conditions 
which were briefly as follows: 

1. That the groups should have the right to satisfy them- 
selves as to purposes for which funds were required. 

2. That China should herself create a system of audit in 
which foreigners should be employed with powers not 
merely advisory, but also executive so as to ensure the 
effective expenditure of loan funds borrowed for the pur- 
poses specified. 

3. That the salt taxes to be hypothecated for the service 



J 



144 WILLARD STRAIGHT 

of this loan should be administered either by the existing 
Maritime Customs organization or by a separate Chinese 
service like the customs, however, under foreign direction, 
thus safeguarding the proper administration of the security 
despite the possible continuation or recurrence of unsettled 
conditions in China. 

4. That the groups should take the first series of the loan 
of £60,000,000, at a fixed price, and be assured an option 
on the subsequent series at a price to be based on the market 
quotation of the first issue, thus giving China the benefit of 
any improvement in her credit. 

5. That to protect the quotation of bonds issued and to 
assure a successful marketing of subsequent series China 
should not borrow through other groups until the entire 
loan of £60,000,000 had been issued. ^ 

6. That for a period of five years China should appoint 
the groups financial agents to assist the administration in its 
work of reorganization. 

These conditions were submitted to the Chinese govern- 
ment and in reply the group representatives in Peking were 
informed that it would be impossible to China to accept a 
loan on such terms. Negotiations, however, though inter- 
rupted, were not formally broken off, and from the end of 
June discussions were continued between the Chinese officials 
and the group representatives, but without result. 

The difficulty was not a question of the price at which the 
bankers should take the bonds. It was the question of 
"control." The Chinese particularly objected to placing 
the salt gabelle under the Maritime Customs, or any foreign 
directed service, and to the creation of a proper audit depart- 
ment^ .tg appointing the groups financial agents. 

It has of late years become the fashion, particularly among 
officials, who like Tang Shao Yi, and Liang Tun Yen served 
for a short time in the Maritime Customs to criticise Sir 
Robert Hart and his administration. Mr. Drew will give 

8 In the contract for the so-called "Crisp" loan of £10,000,000 China 
agreed to a stipulation which virtually prevented her from borrowing, 
except through the Crisp syndicate, for the period of one year or until the 
loan had been issued in entirety. 



china's loan negotiations 145 

you an account of the life and work of this man, one of the 
truest friends China ever had. 

The younger men, however, forget his splendid service — ■ 
they do not realize that he did much to save their country, 
for them, from foreign aggression, and it galls them to admit 
that for years the Customs Service has been, and is today, 
with the exception of the Postal Service, also a creation of 
Sir Robert Hart, the only branch of their entire government 
which can, if judged by western standards, be termed ef- 
ficient. 

The suggestion that the salt gabelle should be put under 
the Maritime Customs therefore was refused, nor would 
the Peking authorities agree to create a similar organization 
to undertake this work. Chinese and many foreign critics 
have pointed out that the Customs Service functions at the 
ports — and that it would therefore be unsuitable for the 
collection of internal revenue. The Postal Service, also 
under foreign direction, however, has been successful in its 
work, conducted throughout China, while customs officials 
have shown great ability in dealing with likin collectorates 
and in solving customs problems in the interior of Manchuria. 

The groups have not insisted upon the exact form the 
proposed administration should take. They have, and do, 
believe that the salt gabelle does not constitute, and cannot] 
be considered, an adequate security unless by placing these! 
taxes under a Chinese government service — but with foreign 
direction, inspectors, and auditors — an efficient and honest 
collection be assured. 

In the present state of China when the Peking adminis- 
tration has by no means established its authority — when 
cabinets are formed and dissolved with kaleidoscopic rapid- 
ity, when revenues are not being collected, and when there 
are large bodies of armed men throughout the country, ready 
at any time to break into open revolt — the groups felt that 
before engaging to undertake so large a loan as that requested 
they should be able to be in a position to guide and advise 
China in her reorganization work, the success of which 
depends primarily on §2LUlid_&nance. It was for this reason 
that they asked to be appointed financial agents. 



146 WILLARD STRAIGHT 

Many of the leading men in Peking have privately recog- 
nized the wisdom of the groups' conditions and the advan- 
tages to be gained should China accept them. Ofl&cially, 
however, these gentlemen have not dared recommend their 
adoption, fearing that their political opponents might make 
any concession to the foreigner the excuse for stirring up an 
agitation which they would be powerless to quell. 

Hoping to obtain less onerous terms the Minister of 
Finance i nJulylast proposed that the groups should continue 
advances to be redeemed from a loan of £10,000,000. 

This sum, however, would have been scarcely sufficient 
to meet China's outstanding and imimediate obligations. 
The safeguards which were suggested by the Chinese more- 
over were inadequate. The groups therefore were unable 
to negotiate on this basis. The officials then stated that as 
the groups would not lend on ''reasonable" terms they would 
be obliged to secure funds from their own people. The 
group representatives and the foreign ministers in Peking 
welcomed the suggestion, and urged them to make a ''popu- 
lar" loan. This was attempted but without success; the 
"people" contributed small sums, but not enough. The 
government next approached certain commercial houses 
and secured small loans, in return for large contracts for 
arms and ammunition. Tramway concessions were offered 
in return for cash advances, and other expedients adopted 
to secure funds sufficient to meet the government's running 
expenses, all of which while relieving a temporary necessity 
merely increased the difficulties of an already almost hope- 
less financial problem. 

Early in September it was reported that on August 30 
tTie Chinese Minister in London had signed a loan agreement 
with Messrs. C. Birch Crisp and Company of London. 
Enquiry addressed to the Minister of Finance in Peking 
evoked the information that he, the Minister of Finance, 
had had nothing to do with the conclusion of the London 
contract which had been arranged by his predecessor acting 
in an informal capacity. The Minister of Finance assured 
the representatives that China desired to deal with the six 
groups as the only combination capable of furnishing withiu 



china's loan negotiations 147 

the next few years the enormous sums which China would 
need to reorganize her administration and finance the in- 
dustrial development upon which the Peking Government 
wished to embark. A.t the time this discussion took place 
funds advanced by Messrs. C. Birch Crisp and Company 
had already been transferred to China and placed to the 
credit of the Chinese government in a Tientsin bank. This 
fact became known to the representatives who brought it 
to the attention of the Minister of Finance. He reiterated 
his former declaration that China desired to deal with the 
six groups and as late as September 23 handed the represen- 
tatives a statement of conditions which he informed them 
China would be ready to make the basis for the continua- 
tion of negotiations for the reorganization loan. These terms 
were not considered acceptable by the group representatives. 
The Minister of Finance thereupon informed them that since 
they had refused the terms proposed by China he considered 
that thfi_og^Qnjvhich the groups had held, had lapsed and 
that China was free to negotiate with other parties. The 
■ so-called "Crisp" loan was issued in London shortly after- 
ward. 

From the above facts it would seem that the Chinese 
government was prepared to repudiate the contract signed 
with London bankers on August 30, in case the six groups 
were willing to come to terms. 

This incident, in connection with others mentioned above, 
is not cited for the purpose of impugning the good faith of 
the Chinese government. Those familiar with the difficulties 
with which the provisional government has been endeavor- 
ing to deal are not inclined to hold China too strictly to 
account for what her real friends will regard as mistaken and 
unfortunate, rather than reprehensible, efforts to solve her 
financial problem. At the same time, with all possible con- 
sideration for China and every sympathy for her officials 
in the performance of their onerous tasks, it must be recog- 
nized that such actions will, if continued, make it impossible 
^ to maintain Chinese credit. 

It will be said perhaps that by concluding the so-called 
"Crisp" loan, China demonstrated her ability to borrow in 



148 WILLARD STRAIGHT 

'the markets of the world. This may be true, but the fact 
that China could in this case secure funds was due largely to 
public confidence in the stabihty of the Chinese administra- 
tion based on the willingness of the six-power group to 
advance funds to the provisional government even prior to 
the inauguration of the President, Yuan Shih Kai, and the 
belief that the six groups would in the end come to an 
arrangement with Peking which would give value to all 
\ Chinese securities. 

Many gentlemen in the United States have pointed out in 
discussing this subject that the American banking group in 
particular should remember the history of our own country 
and not be too exacting in its dealings with the Chinese 
Repubhc. 

The argument is plausible but cannot be given too much 
weight when it is remembered that when our federal govern- 
ment was first established there was no large public debt 
while the resources of the young American Republic were 
enormous. The funds secured from abroad during our revo- 
lution, and immediately following its conclusion, had been 
advanced by the French government, not so much with the 
idea of assisting the struggling colonies as for the purpose 
of embarrassing Great Britain. Only when Alexander 
Hamilton had reorganized the finances of the country, 
securing the assumption by the federal government of the 
larger part of the debt of the states, and after he had put the 
1 administration of the Treasury Department on a sound 
I basis, were the United States able to borrow from foreign 
bankers on satisfactory terms. The Ministry of Finance in 
Peking, however, is still operated on lines scarcely conform- 
able to our ideas of a business administration, despite the 
efforts of able men like Dr. Chen Chin Tao, while the repub- 
lican government has assumed the obligations of its imperial 
predecessor for which the revenues of China are to a very 
large degree already hypothecated, and for the service of 
which they are at the present time insufficient. 

Not long ago I happened to be present when the loan ques- 
tion was discussed by a distinguished gentleman who had 
just returned from the Far East. He had been greatly 



china's loan negotiations 149 

impressed by what the revolution had accomplished, was 
full of admiration for the Chinese people and confident of the 
bright future of the Republic. He felt that the bankers were 
mistaken in demanding terms which the Chinese considered 
so onerous and thought that the wiser policy for the groups 
would be to work for the future by now making concesssions 
calculated to relieve the Chinese officials of their immediate 
embarrassments. He thought that for American mer- 
chants the fairest, and at the same time the ultimately most 
profitable, attitude to adopt toward China was to strive for 
the maintenance of the ''open door" under which with a 
strong central government international trade would greatly 
prosper. 

He recognized that the authority of the present Peking 
administration was not generally established in the provinces, 
that revenues were not being collected and that without 
money the central government could not become strong. 
He admitted that while he had met many officials he had 
seen few whom he considered competent to direct the expen- 
diture of large sums in the manner most likely to assure the 
speedy restoration of normal conditions throughout the 
country and he beUeved therefore that the Chinese govern- 
ment should employ advisers and accept their advice. 

The distinguished traveler had predicated his hope for the 
future on the establishment of a strong central government 
which would be able to collect sufficient revenue to finance 
its own reorganization. Unfortunately, however, this can- 
not be accomplished unless the Chinese government first 
secures from abroad money sufficient to give it the power to 
make these collections and pay off its pressing debts under 
safeguards which will protect it for the time being from exter- 
nal aggression. 

If his conclusions as to the ability of Chinese officials now 
in power were warranted, and his observations correct regard- 
ing the present state of affairs in China, his recommendation 
that the groups ''play for the future," by lending money on 
terms acceptable to the Chinese, would scarcely seem jus- 
tified by his premises. Those who have lived in China and 
grown to know and admire the Chinese, however, will readily 



150 ' WILLAED STRAIGHT 

understand this point of view. It is impossible not to sym- 
pathize with the aspirations of the young men who are now 
striving to do what they can for their country. At the same 
time American bankers would not be acting as true friends 
of China if they failed to look the facts of the situation in the 
face. They would not be ''plajdng for" the best future for 
China should they lend money on conditions which might 
satisfy the vanity of Chinese officialdom but instead of assist- 
ing the establishment of a strong central government would 
encourage improvident financial methods and lead inevitably 
to foreign intervention. 

The present financial situation in China is set forth in an 
article in the North China Herald of September 28, 1912, 
an abstract of which is given below: 

The obligations that China is bound to liquidate are as follows. 
First of all, Tls. 12,000,000 advanced by the sextuple group from 
February to July, on the distinct understanding that the Chinese 
government would sign the loan with them, including this sum in 
the total amount for which the loan is signed. The Chinese 
government gave the banks treasury bills, and at the exchange 
fixed the total works out at £1,750,000 steriing. Secondly, there 
are amounts due to the shipbuilding firms in England and the United 
States for works executed by them on orders given by the Manchu 
government but completed during this year. In the list of their 
outstanding debts furnished by them to the sextuple group the 
Chinese government have £700,000 against this item. 

Thirdly, there are the Hupeh and Nanking loans of about 
£300,000 each given by the banks to the Viceroys of the two 
provinces on the authority of Peking during the Manchu regime. 
These sums have been overdue for some time, and as the new gov- 
ernment has undertaken responsibility for all the past obligations 
they must be paid the moment it obtains funds. Fourthly, 
there are two loans contracted at recent dates on the under- 
standing that they would be repaid as soon as China signed the 
big loan. The Diederichsen loan of Mks. 5,000,000 and the 
Carlowitz loan of Tls. 6,000,000 come under this category. Part 
of these amounts was received in cash, although the major portion 
consisted of amounts due on arms and ammunition supplied by 
these firms during the revolution. 

Fifthly, the Skoda loan contracted with Arnold, Karberg and 
Company during the revolution, the moiety of which was received 
in cash and the rest in the shape of arms and ammunition, amounts 
to about £450,000. Sixthly, as the currency loan was floated by 
members of the group, and as it is not likely to be floated by them 
if the present arrangements are continued, they will be entitled 



china's loan negotiations 151 

to demand repayment of the advance of £400,000 made to the 
government last year in April, 1913. 

In the seventh place, the amounts due on indemnities, which 
have been outstanding since October last will work out at over 
£2,500,000. The total to be paid by China on this account works 
out roughly at £250,000 per month. Making due allowance for 
last year's surplus from the customs revenue and the accumulation 
of native customs revenue, which Dr. Morrison referred to recently, 
there would still be outstanding the amounts due from January 
this year. 

Lastly seeing that the Chinese dropped the Anglo-Belgian 
syndicate loan after taking an advance of £1,250,000, the syn- 
dicate will not have the least hesitation in demanding immediate 
payment of the amount. Besides there are a number of small 
Japanese loans, and small German loans, other than those we 
have mentioned, mostly for arms supplied during the revolution 
— the date of payment of which is long overdue. Everybody 
has been anxiously waiting for the big loan, especially as no security 
has been given besides the bond of the Chinese authorities. 

Further, it is necessary to state in this connection that the 
merchants, banks and other rich Chinese who helped the new 
government, both during the struggle and after, now stand badly 
crippled from want of funds. They have been often told that their 
outstandings would be cleared as soon as the first loan with the 
foreigner was closed. Trade is badly in need of the funds spent on 
the revolution; and if a moiety of the debts of the government is 
not paid even after a foreign loan becomes an actuality, the fail- 
ure may give rise to acute discontent. The amount on this 
score is not available, but the lowest estimate puts it at about Tls. 
20,000,000. 

Let us suppose that the London syndicate is able to float the 
whole of the £10,000,000^ in October. The loan is expected to be 
floated at 95, brokerage and other expenses incident on the flota- 
tion may be put at 3 per cent, and by the time the loan is floated, 
if at all successfully, China would have received and spent at 
least £150,000. The net receipts from the loan would therefore 
amount to £9,050,000. The total foreign indebtedness, of which 
China could not in honor delay payment, amounts to £8,950,000. 
Thus she will have a residue of £100,000 with which to pay her 
unpaid troops and disband them, and begin setting the Republic 
in order. 

If China refuses to pay all her outstanding debts at present 
except the indemnity instalments that have fallen in arrears-^ — 
in order to save the salt gabelle from being taken over by the 
powers— she will have fully £6,500,000 to pay her soldiers with 
and begin reforms at once — so it is suggested in some quarters. 
In the case of an individual such refusal would mean bankruptcy; 

'£5,000,000 was floated in September. The bankers paid 89 for the 
bonds — China received not more than £4,450,000. 



152 WILLARD STRAIGHT 

in the case of a nation it would mean the utter ruination of its 
credit in the markets of the world; And China must necessarily 
borrow much more than £10,000,000. There is no disguising the 
fact that China has no security to offer — security in the proper 
sense of the word. Her performances in the past have not been 
such as to inspire confidence. And her hidden resources need an 
enormous amount of capital in order that any tangible result may 
be got out of them. 

It may be remembered that in his speech in March before the 
Assembly at Nanking the then Premier, Mr. Tang Shao Yi, stated 
that £25,000,000, besides the revenue, would be absolutely needed 
within the next twelve months. What he said then was substan- 
tially correct, and remains true today. The interval has only 
slightly added to the total needs, as the soldiers are still being kept 
and paid from want of funds to pay and disband them — although 
in the interim a number of small loans and advances have all been 
received and spent. It is quite interesting to note the different 
items for which funds are needed although our list is not identical 
with that supplied to the Assembly by Mr. Tang Shao Yi. 

If China wishes to preserve her credit as a power, she must 
liquidate her pressing debts before beginning any constructive 
work. First and foremost is the foreign indebtedness to the tune 
of £9,000,000 — the details of which we have mentioned above. 
Secondly, her merchants, bankers and gentry, who supplied funds 
to prosecute the revolution and carry on the new government 
deserve better consideration than they have received; and the sums 
owing to them are estimated at about Tls. 20,000,000, or roughly 
£3,000,000. Thirdly, she must pay the troops, who are now eat- 
ing their heads off, and disband the major portion of them. It 
was estimated that expenditure on this score would cost £5,000,000 
some four months ago. A certain number of troops have been 
disbanded, but the cost of getting rid of the rest of them has not 
greatly been lessened, owing to the delay. 

Fourthly, she will have to buy back the republican bonds, on 
which she has to pay interest half yearly at the rate of 8 per cent 
per annum, while the bonds are continually depreciating. Sums 
received on account of the "so-called patriotic loan," while of no 
practical utility to her, are depleting the resources of the trade in 
the provinces. These suggestions are made with the view to 
enable China to start with a clean slate, if she wishes to proceed 
with the work of reorganization without encumbrances. Thus 
before she begins any construction work she stands to have to pay 
out £19,000,000. 

Now as regards sums needed for construction work and reform. 
The basis of all reorganization in China is currency reform, and 
so long as the currency is what it is there is no hope of making 
headway of any kind. It may be remembered that in the cur- 
rency loan arrangement of 1911, £7,000,000 was set apart for cur- 
rency reform; and that amount does not err on the side of extrav- 
agance. Whatsoever may be the final decision in regard to the 



china's loan negotiations 153 

standard, there is no doubt that a considerable amount of silver 
would have to be purchased presently and coined; and one may- 
rest assured that in working out the details in connection with 
bringing about a uniform currency throughout the length and 
breadth of the country, more funds may be needed later on. 

Of equal importance is the immediate necessity for taking meas- 
ures to minimize the effects of the famines and floods, which cause 
a perennial loss to the country and bring death and ruin to thou- 
sands, if not millions, year after year. Mr. Jameson's scheme of 
constructing dykes should be taken in hand immediately, and 
afforestation should be carried on simultaneously. An expendi- 
ture of £5,000,000 distributed during the next five years is not 
beyond the mark; and the loss averted during this period, judging 
by past experience, would be fully that amount. Of course, when 
a loan is arranged, it should be for the full amount, for the sooner 
the works are finished the more profitable they would be for the 
country. In so far as such expenditure would amply repay itself, 
it is hardly to be reckoned among China's debts. But it is a 
charge for which, in the first place, a large sum of ready money 
will be required. 

The ideal of any loan to China at present should be to enable 
her to pay back the past and present borrowings. Of course, 
the basis of such an ideal are the untapped resources of China 
for taxation, the great industrial and agricultural possibilities of 
the land and the hidden resources of the country. But even 
to find these money is needed; to develop them much more. Devel- 
opment in this direction alone, under the aegis of a good govern- 
ment and a sound currency, would enable China to pay interest 
and principal of past, present and future debts. Expedients like 
those of the increase of the customs dues or the salt tax would 
prove only of temporary utility, and under certain conditions 
might even do harm. 

The currency loan of last year included provision for £3,000,- 
000 for Manchurian industrial development. And thrice three 
millions sterling for the eighteen provinces for industrial develop- 
ment and administrative reform would only err on the side of 
economy. Of course, this program does not take into account 
sums needed for railway construction in the country or private 
industrial enterprises. And in China's present financial state it 
would be ridiculous to dream of spending money for military or 
naval advancement. Thus, it would seem that if foreign loans 
should serve any beneficent purpose at all for China, a sum of 
£40,000,000 is necessary during the year ending, say, next June; 
and further amounts, into the details of which it is too early now 
to go, appear likely to be needed in the coming years. 

This total of China's needs for the year is based on the sup- 
position that the revenue of the country will meet its ordinary 
expenditure. Mr. Tang said there would be a deficit of Tls. 
40,000,000 this year, and probably the same amount next — the 
obvious deduction being, of course, that borrowings will have to 



154 WILLAKD STBAIGHT 

be increased to this extent. Anyhow, there is no doubting that 
any syndicate proposing to lend money to China should be able 
to arrange for £40,000,000 during the next nine months, and be 
able to pay about £60,000,000 during the next three years. The 
original proposal of the sextuple group was arranged on this basis, 
and the total of £60,000,000 was agreed upon as necessary for the 
regeneration of the country. 

Again it should not be forgotten that the annual payments on 
foreign loans by China will almost be trebled from 1916. The 
amortization of the railway loans starts from then, and the in- 
demnity payments would then be more than double the present 
amounts. If China is not up and doing, with something in the 
way of reorganization she must be deeper in the mire than ever by 
1916. At present everything in the way of reform needs large 
initial expenditure. To stop squeeze in the collection of revenue 
it is necessary to have good accounting, and officials with a salary 
which would place them above temptation. The land tax in 
China gives a ridiculously low yield; to increase it an effectual 
survey costing millions of taels is essential. 

That the banks composing the sextuple group, with their respec- 
tive governments at their back, would be able to supply China 
with this large total with more facility than any number of other 
syndicates is beyond question. The Chinese themselves know it, 
and hence their anxiety to keep on good terms with the group in 
spite of their latest action. 

Apropos of the apparent success of the new loan we understand 
that already demands have been made upon Peking by several 
individuals and institutions in China. The funds of the Bank 
of China were drawn upon to further the cause of the revolution; 
and the bank naturally requires money to carry on its ordinary 
business. This bank is the best of institutions of a similar kind 
in China and deserves the help of the government — at least to the 
extent of receiving back what it paid out. But then, how far will 
£10,000,000 go?" 

Such is the situation as seen by the Shanghai business man. 
The six groups because of the support of their governments, 
and because they believe that a loan properly safeguarded 
is the only means by which normal conditions can be restored 
in China, are willing to assist the Chinese government, in 
dealing with the conditions described above. They are 
criticised, however, because they are unwilling to loan funds 
except on terms which the Chinese regard as humiliating. 

It has frequently been stated moreover that one of the 
chief Chinese objections to the ''six-power" group has been 
the fear of any combination in which Russia and Japan is 
represented. Those who are familiar with Far Eastern 



china's loan negotiations 155 

politics and who have considered their relation to European 
affairs, are aware that this grouping of the powers is a safe- 
guard rather than a menace to China's integrity. They 
will realize that if this combination be maintained and 
China be willing to cooperate therewith, she will be able 
better to protect herself against the selfish designs of indi- 
viduals which even though they may not be prevented will 
certainly be restricted by the necessities of joint action.^" 

Those who have criticised the attitude of the six-power 
group have in a measure lost sight of some of the elementary 
functions of a banking house which handles foreign loans. 
They have forgotten that it is not the bankers themselves 
who provide the money to finance a foreign loan, though they 
may for a time advance from their own resources certain 
preliminary payments. Bond issues, however, are sold to 
the public, the bankers receiving their commission on the 
sale and the reputation of a house of issue like that of any 
other commercial establishment depends upon the quality 
of the commodity which it sells. Bankers would not be 
justified in requesting their clients to take bonds on a senti- 
mental and not a business basis any more than the presi- 
dent of an insurance company would be warranted in loaning 
funds for which he was responsible to a personal friend 
regarding whose solvency he had no guarantee. 

The groups engaged in the present Chinese loan negotia-^\ 
tions are institutions of the highest standing in their respec- 
tive countries. The rupture in negotiations did not come 
because the bankers attempted to obtain an unreasonable 
commission but because they felt they could not afford to 
place upon the market a loan which they did not consider 
sound in the present state of China unless they obtained safe- 
guards such as they have demanded, not to add to their own / 
profit, but in the interest of the prospective investor. / 

1" Had it not been for the. agreement between the six powers to take no 
separate and individual action during the Revolution Japan would have 
sent an expedition to China to keep the Manchus on the throne. She was 
prevented from taking this step by the representations of the British gov- 
ernment which insisted that nothing should be done to prejudice continued 
joint action by all the great powers. 



156 WILLARD STRAIGHT 

Fair-minded observers of recent events in the Far East 
recognize that the American banking group has during the 
past three years demonstrated its friendship for China. The 
American bankers personally wish for the success of the 
Chinese Republic. As real friends of China, however, it 
would be just as reprehensible for them to offer for sale bonds 
secured from China on terms which they did not consider 
calculated to restore and increase her credit, as it would be 
for them to issue to the public securities which they did not 
feel assured would constitute a sound investment. 

It has been stated by men in authority in Peking that they 
would rather sell their country bit by bit than submit to the 
terms asked by the six-power group. Concessions have been 
offered giving to foreigners the right to construct and operate 
railways for forty years in return for a cash down payment 
of 5,000,000 taels. This indeed would be to sell the nation's 
birthright for a mess of pottage and to sow the dragon's 
teeth of financial bondage. Yet it is proposed by the very 
men who complain most bitterly of the conditions required 
by the six groups which are mild in comparison and which are 
calculated to build up a strong central government rather 
than create a nest of warring foreign interests which will 
cause China trouble and shame for years to come. 

In these negotiations the banking groups have been charged 
with a very heavy responsibility. Their terms were sub- 
mitted only after long and careful deliberation. China's 
difficulties were fully and sympathetically considered and the 
conditions required by the groups were prepared in her inter- 
est as well as in the interests of the groups and the prospec- 
tive bondholders. 

Recognizing, however, the peculiar difficulties of the pres- 
ent Peking government the groups have throughout been 
willing to consider any plan which the Chinese themselves 
might propose, calculated to free them from embarrassment, 
and at the same time carrying with it safeguards sufficient 
to make any loan based thereon a sound investment. 

The six groups have been endeavoring to induce China 
to undertake real constructive work while the Peking authori- 
ties have either failed to realize the necessity therefor or 



china's loan negotiations 157 

have been unwilling to assume the responsibility of under- 
taking a practical and comprehensive scheme. In follow- 
ing this course these officials are China's worst enemies for 
the reckless financial policy of the past few months if con- 
tinued will lead to that very intervention, which in refusing 
the six groups' terms, these gentlemen have been avowedly 
trying to avoid. 

The groups have not been attempting to force money, with 
humiliating conditions attached, on China. They have 
stated merely that they are willing, only upon certain condi- 
tions, to loan the money which China has requested them 
to furnish. The groups do not insist that China accept a 
loan if these conditions are unacceptable. They do say that 
they will not issue Chinese bonds on terms which they regard 
as unsatisfactory. The ''six-power" groups do not con- 
stitute a monopoly but they are not willing to undertake 
any loan unless assured that they will be entitled to furnish 
on sound conditions funds to complete the transactions, the 
initiation of which they finance, and that they shall have a 
clear market until the different loan series for which they 
contract are sold. 

For the sake of the preservation of China's integrity and 
the commercial ''open door" it is to be hoped that some 
mutually satisfactory understanding may be reached between 
China and the "six-power" group. It is to China's interest 
that this combination should be maintained, and it is to the 
interest of China as well as of the United States, that we should 
retain our present position therein. China's great problem 
to-day is that of finance. It is to her advantage that we 
are entitled to a practical voice in its solution, and it is to the 
advantage of American trade that the United States con- 
tinue to be an active party in Chinese loan negotiations. 

Supplementary Note 

Although the agreement for the Reorganization Loan was on 
the point of signature early in February, developments since 
that time have caused a further postponement of the conclu- 
sion of this transaction. 



158 WILLARD STRAIGHT 

The terms agreed upon by the Chinese government and the 
bankers are substantially those outUned in the foregoing 
pages. The purposes for which the money is to be expended 
were specified by the Chinese government and deemed satis- 
factory by the bankers. 

Provision has been made in the loan agreement to ensure 
the expenditure of borrowed funds for these specified pur- 
poses. The Chinese government has itself established an 
Audit Department and engaged to appoint a competent 
foreigner to introduce an effective system of accounting, 
while a Bureau of Foreign Loans will also be created which 
will, hke the Audit Department, be under the direction of a 
foreign employee of the Chinese government. 

The proposed agreement also stipulates that the Chinese 
government shall appoint a foreigner who shall act jointly 
with the Chinese Director General of the Salt Administra- 
tion and provision is made for the appointment of foreign 
and Chinese district inspectors, who shall have charge of the 
salt production, the sale of this commodity to the salt mer- 
chants and the collection of the salt revenues, which it is stip- 
ulated shall be deposited with the group banks until provision 
is made for the service of the loan. The loan agreement also 
contains a provision, which, if the six groups undertake the 
reorganization loan, will protect the market therefor until it 
has been issued in entirety. 

The negotiations resulting in the preparation of the agree- 
ment outlined above were undertaken by the banks on the 
understanding that the Chinese government would appoint 
foreigners to the positions mentioned and would satisfy the 
six legations in Peking that these employees would be en- 
gaged under contracts which would enable them to render 
effective service. 

The Chinese government on the night before it was ex- 
pected that the loan agreement would be signed nominated 
a Dane for the Salt Administration, an Italian for the Audit 
Department, and a German for the Loan Bureau. Certain 
of the interested governments desired that these foreign 
employees should be of the nationality of the lending bank- 
ers. These points were raised at the last moment and re- 



china's loan negotiations 159 

quired a month to adjust between the various governments 
concerned. The program agreed upon by the six govern- 
ments was submitted to the Chinese government early in 
March and refused by the Chinese. At the time of writing, 
however, negotiations are still in progress and it is to be 
hoped that a mutually satisfactory arrangement will soon 
be reached. 

Editorial Note 

Since Mr, Straight completed this article, the American 
Banking Group has definitely withdrawn from further parti- 
cipation in the Six Power loan negotiations, due to Presi- 
dent's Wilson's refusal to continue the moral support of 
the Government. The following are the official explana- 
tions of the attitude of the Administration and of the Ameri- 
can group respectively. President Wilson gave this state- 
ment to the press: 

We are informed that, at the request of the last administration, 
a certain group of American bankers undertook to participate in 
the loan now desired by the government of China (approximately 
$125,000,000). Our government wished American bankers to 
participate along with the bankers of other nations, because it 
desired that the good will of the United States toward China should 
be exhibited in this practical way; that American capital should 
have access to that great country and that the United States should 
be in a position to share with the other powers any pohtical respon- 
sibilities that might be associated with the development of the 
foreign relations of China in connection with their industrial and 
commercial enterprises. The present administration has been asked 
by this group of bankers whether it would also request them to 
participate in the loan. 

The representatives of the bankers through whom the adminis- 
tration was approached declared that they would continue to seek 
their share of the loan under the proposed agreements only if 
expressly requested to do so by the government. The adminis- 
tration has declined to make such request because it did not ap- 
prove the conditions of the loan or the implications of responsibility 
on its own part which it was plainly told would be involved in the 
request. 

The conditions of the loan seem to us to touch very nearly the 
administrative independence of China itself; and this administra- 
tion does not feel that it ought, even by implication, to be a party 
to those conditions. The responsibility on its part which would be 
implied in requesting the bankers to undertake the loan might 
conceivably go the length in some unhappy contingence of forcible 



160 WILLIARD STKAIGHT 

interference in the financial, and even the political affairs of that 
great Oriental state, just now awakening to a consciousness of its 
power and of its obligations to its people. 

The conditions include not only the pledging of particular taxes, 
some of them antiquated and burdensome, to secure the loan, but 
also the administration of these taxes by foreign agents. The 
responsibility on the part of our government implied in the en- 
couragement of a loan thus secured and administered is plain 
enough and is obnoxious to the principles upon which the govern- 
ment of our people rests. 

The government of the United States is not only wilHng, but 
earnestly desirous of aiding the great Chinese people in every way 
that is consistent with their untrammeled development and its 
own immemorial principles. The awakening of the people of China 
to a consciousness of their possibilities under free government is 
the most significant if not the most momentous event of our 
generation. 

With this movement and aspiration the American people are in 
profound sympathy. They certainly wish to participate and 
participate very generously, in opening to the Chinese and to the 
use of the world the almost untouched and perhaps unrivalled 
resources of China. 

The government of the United States is earnestly desirous of 
promoting the most extended and intimate trade relationships 
between this country and the Chinese republic. The present 
administration will urge and support the legislative measures nec- 
essary to give American merchants, manufacturers, contractors and 
engineers, the banking facilities which they now lack and without 
which they are at a serious disadvantage as compared with their 
industrial and commercial rivals. This is its duty. This is the 
main material interest of its citizens in the development of China. 

Our interests are those of the open door — a door of friendship and 
mutual advantage. This is the only door we care to enter. 

The following was handed to the press by the American 
group, March 19: 

The American Group, consisting of J. P. Morgan & Co., Kuhn, 
Loeb & Co., The First National Bank and the National City Bank, 
was formed in the spring of 1909, upon the expressed desire of the 
Department of State that a financial group be organized to take up 
the participation to which American capital was entitled in the 
Hukuang Railway Loan Agreement, then under negotiation by the 
British, French and German banking groups. 

This group thus became interested in Chinese Loan matters, not 
primarily for its own profit, but for purposes indicated by President 
Taft and Secretary Knox. As stated in President Taft's message 
to Congress of December 1909, these purposes, in effect, called 
for the co-operation of the bankers as the ''indispensable instru- 
mentality" which the American Government needed to enable it 



china's loan negotiations 161 

"to carry out a practical and real application of the open door 
policy." The Department of State considered that American co- 
operation with the Banking Groups of the several great powers 
enabled the United States to exercise a practical voice in China's 
affairs and constituted the best guarantee for the preservation of 
China's integrity. 

In pursuance of the policy so advocated, the American Group, 
with the Administration's approval, entered into an agreement 
with the British, French and German Groups for the purpose of 
rendering financial assistance to China. In February 1912 these 
four groups at the request of their respective Governments and with 
the consent of the Chinese Government, admitted Russian and 
Japanese financial groups to the negotiations for the Reorganiza- 
tion Loan, thus constituting what has since been known as the 
Six Power Group. 

Following the revolution and despite the fact that the authority 
of the new Republic had not been generally accepted, the American 
Group joined with the other groups in making to the Provisional 
Government substantial advances to enable it more firmly to 
establish its authority and to restore normal conditions through- 
out the country. 

Meanwhile there had been in negotiation, during a period of 
many months, a loan agreement which, in its general terms, 
appeared last month to meet the approval of the Six Governments, 
of their banking groups, and the Chinese Government, and to be 
ready for signature. 

These terms were intended to cover two points. The first 
was to enable the Chinese Government to reorganize its adminis- 
tration on an effective modern basis, to pay off its large outstand- 
ing debts and build up Chinese credit. The second was to protect 
the interests of American and European investors. For such 
protection, in the judgment of the Governments and the Groups, 
the only method was to ensure, despite any possible recurrence of 
political unrest in China, the proper expenditure of the funds 
loaned to China and to safe-guard the handling of the revenues 
pledged for principle and interest of the bonds. 

As announced in the statement given to the press yesterday 
the present Administration at Washington, with a desire to be of 
assistance to China and to promote American interests in the Far 
East, has decided that these purposes may better be served by the 
adoption of a different and independent policy. As the American 
Group had been ready to serve the Administration in the past, ir- 
respective of the heavy risks involved, so it was disposed to serve 
the present Administration if so requested. But deferring to 
the policy now declared, the Group has withdrawn entirely from 
the Chinese Loan negotiations and has so advised the European 
and Japanese banking groups. 



THE RELATION OF THE RETURNED STUDENTS 
TO THE CHINESE REVOLUTION 

By Y. S. Tsao, Secretary of the Chinese Students' Alliance in 

America 

It is not without a considerable amount of misgiving that 
the writer ventures to trace the relation between the returned 
students and the recent revolution, as his residence in Amer- 
ica might lead him into partial statements in favor of the 
returned students from this country or the underestimation 
of the role played by those from Europe or Japan. Moreover 
the topic called for specific treatment to the exclusion of 
generalizations, so it is the aim of this paper to study the 
returned students from a subjective standpoint at the out- 
set, to be followed by concrete and typical illustrations of the 
part played by the returned students from the several coun- 
tries. 

It might be well, at the beginning, to divide the returned 
students into two main groups, namely those from Europe 
and America and those from Japan. It must be admitted 
that by far the largest part of the recent revolution, was 
accomplished by the returned students from Japan by virtue 
of their numerical strength and for other reasons to be 
accounted for later on. On the whole, all the returned stu- 
dents, wherever they hail from and whatever political views 
they hold are destined to play the part of leaders on account 
of their superior training and breadth of vision. It has been 
estimated that America has 5 per cent college men and they 
will eventually become the leaders of the nation for even 
if they do not all become men of great influence, they will 
always be looked up to in every community as leaders of 
public opinion for the same reasons. Only in the case of the 
Chinese students they have better opportunities of dupli- 
cating themselves in this rapid transitory period of China's 
history. 

162 



returned students and chinese revolution 163 

Influence of Western Education for Reformation 
AND Revolution 

A recent writer has observed pithily that if you change the 
ideas of the Chinese their policy will change, which is no 
more and no less than granting our people with the credit 
for being rational. Of the many factors leading to the 
modification or reversal of ideas the influence of western 
education has achieved the most far-reaching results. The 
contrast between the social, economic, political and reli- 
gious institutions of the West and those of the East is too 
obvious to escape the attention of even the most unobserving 
student. While much of the good in the old institutions 
should be conserved, every student cannot but desire to 
see the adoption of many modern ideas that have been slowly 
developed in the west. This is strictly true to the students 
who have left China for a stay of from five to eight years of 
study in a foreign land during the formative period of their 
lives. The experience of living in a different atmosphere is 
interesting and the impression correspondingly deep. In a 
word, they form a bridge across the broad expanse of seas, 
on which new learning, new ideals and new institutions are 
constantly conveyed to China. Fully saturated with new 
ideas and ideals, filled with the zeal of new ambitions and 
aspirations and kindled by a new sense of patriotism as a 
result of travel, these liberated individuals return to do and 
dare. From this very spirit the seed of revolution is bound 
to germinate. In the early seventies, some one hundred and 
twenty students were brought over to America by Dr. Yung 
Wing of Yale for a course of twelve years' training but they 
were recalled in 1881 being accused for harbouring revolu- 
tionary ambitions. The apprehensive Manchu government 
was not far from the truth. 

Another important factor which helped immensely to 
develop the revolutionary spirit was the recent political his- 
tory of China, both nationally and internationally. Ever 
since the China-Japan war, the country has been in a state 
of unrest. The reverses of that war caused a rude awaken- 
ing and the late Emperor Kwang-Hsu with the assistance of 



164 Y. S. TSAO 

the reform party headed by Kwang Yu Wei and Liang Chi 
Chao decreed such a series of ultra-radical reforms that it 
soon resulted in the famous coup d'etat. This reaction 
blindly led to the painful experience of 1900 but when the 
Manchurian leaders of the Boxers were banished from the 
court, the pendulum began to sweep back and the cause of 
reform again developed a brighter prospect. The late Em- 
press Dowager was convinced of the necessity of reform and 
she had the direction of Yuan Shih Kai who as the Viceroy 
of Chili carried out a very successful series of reform measures. 
However, the pendulum reached the limit at the deaths of 
the Empress Dowager and the Emperor when Yuan Shih 
Kai and Tuan Fang, the two most promising statesmen of 
the day, fell. Since then, the retrogression was rapid. The 
people agitated for an immediate parliament but the govern- 
ment resisted the demand stubbornly. With this public 
disappointment, with the vacillating and insincere policy 
of the government, with the ever present economic factor 
of industrial revolution and non-employment, plague, fam- 
ine and financial stringency, all the symptoms of a revolution 
were present. Added to all these, internationally, there 
were the constant acts of aggression in the form of wanton 
grabbing of territory and provoked and unprovoked military 
demonstrations on our frontiers. So since 1910, the bubbling 
cauldron of discontent and impatience was ready to boil over 
at any moment. Under such conditions, the returned stu- 
dents as representatives of advanced thought could not but 
ascribe such consequences to the existing political corrup- 
tions and diplomatic blunders and wishing sincerely for a 
better state of affairs, not a few of them raised the cry, ''On 
to Peking!" 

When the students returned from America in the early 
eighties, they were despised, suspected and watched by the 
officers of the Manchu government. For the first few years, 
they were given a thorough drilling in Chinese literature 
so as to win them over to the conservative attitude of look- 
ing at things and when sufficiently purged of their revolu- 
tionary ideas, they were left to shift for themselves for the 
government had no use for such ''semi-foreigners." But 



RETURNED STUDENTS AND CHINESE REVOLUTION 165 

beginning with the reformation after the China-Japan war, 
a number of reformers from the old school went to court as 
advisers and not a few returned students from America were 
given appointments by high officials. However, it was not 
until after the Boxer uprising that a number of them through 
the recommendation of Yuan Shih Kai were given respon- 
sible positions in the government. Among them were the 
ex-secretary of state, Liang Tung Yen, the ex-premier, Tang 
Shao Yi, Admiral San Chen Ping, ex-minister Wu Ting Fang, 
Sir Liang Cheng, Railroad Director Liang Mun Ting, Chief 
Engineer Jeme Tien Yu, etc. 

The prospect of a successful reformation was quite evident 
while Yuan Shih Kai remained in power with the students 
giving suggestions and rendering very creditable service. 
Modern systems of police, of popular education, of judiciary 
and army were organized; railway management was sys- 
tematized, foreign relations improved and a constitution 
recommended. Several military maneuvers were held and 
foreign critics were actually discussing the ever-recurrent 
bug-bear of ''Yellow-Peril." This state of affairs was too 
good for the Manchus for they could not follow the course of 
development intelligently, so ere long, /'the strong man of 
China" was degraded and with him a number of pains- 
taking returned students. Once placed in responsible posi- 
tions, they saw the hopeless way the insincere government 
had been hood-winking the whole nation and at once enter- 
tained revolutionary ideas to upset the whole government 
and build a new structure in its place. 

The Educational Revolution 

The abolition of the old imperial literary examinations 
was succeeded by the new educational system based upon the 
Japanese and American institutions. It emphasized a lib- 
eral scientific education. When the many forms of schools 
sprang up throughout the nation like mushrooms, there 
was a great dearth of modern teachers. For a time the 
scholars of the old school attempted to supply the demand 
but as the curriculum was so up-to-date, they found the 



166 Y. S. TSAO 

desires of the students to be above their abihty to satisfy. 
Indeed, many of these teachers devoured all forms of modern 
text-books and translated literature so that for the primary 
and middle grades they taught with fair success, but the 
more advanced students became uncontrollable which 
accounted for the inniunerable strikes and lock-outs. This 
unsatisfactory state of affairs together with the recent suc- 
cesses of Japan in her war with Russia, induced the govern- 
ment to send thousands of students to Japan. At one time, 
the exodus reached 15,000 and Japan had to open special 
institutions to accommodate them. 

In the meantime, the government demanded more up- 
to-date officials and following the traditional method of 
testing them, competitive examinations were held for the 
returned students. The successful candidates were conferred 
the same honorary degrees according to the old nomencla- 
ture of ''Hanlin" (doctor of philosophy), "Chin-shih" 
and '' Juren." This recognition of the returned students on 
the part of the government increased their influence and 
prestige throughout the whole educational world. While 
large numbers of the students in schools aspired to be edu- 
cated abroad, the greater part had to be satisfied by being 
taught by the returned students whose direct influence upon 
this new student class proved to be a very potent factor 
for the revolution. 

While the handful of returned students from Europe and 
America were busy occupying themselves with ofiicial life, 
teaching and engineering, a few of them translated the works 
of John Stuart Mill, Hiixley, Spencer, Darwin, Henry 
George and other modern writers. ''The doctrine of the 
survival of the fittest has been on the lips of every thinking 
Chinese, and its grim significance is not lost on a nation that 
seems to be the center of struggle in the Far East." How- 
ever, the greater part of the modern ideas came fpm Japan 
through the students there who after a few months of train- 
ing could easily transcribe Japanese translations of western 
books into Chinese. The rapid multiplication of patriotic 
newspapers and magazines helped immensely to dissemi- 
nate modern political ideas along with scientific knowledge 



RETURNED STUDENTS AND CHINESE REVOLUTION 167 

throughout the length and breadth of the nation. The biog- 
raphies of such statesmen as Washington, Bismark, Met- 
ternich and Gladstone, such leaders as Napoleon, Cromwell 
and Lincoln, such patriots as Mazzini, Garibaldi were liter- 
ally devoured. The doctrines of Rousseau, Montesquieux 
and Voltaire were expounded and a weekly known as The 
People based upon the principles of ''Young Italy" was 
started. It had a circulation of 150,000 before it was finally 
suppressed by the Japanese government upon the request 
of the Manchu government. 

The publication of radical papers and magazines liberated 
the individuals and inspired a new national feeling. Patriot- 
ism developed a new significance and nationalism bred 
impatience and self-assertion. Constitutionalism and repub- 
licanism were keenly discussed. Liberty, Equality and 
Fraternity was the slogan of the day. According to a Japan- 
ese writer, ''Every mother's son of the returned students 
from Japan is a cheerful, reckless, vociferous, flaming torch 
for the revolutionary movement." 

Intense patriotism and the realization of political dangers 
at once reversed the old adage of "Good iron is not used for 
making nails and good men are not meant for the soldiery." 
Many students joined military institutions at home and 
several hundreds of them went to Japan and Germany for 
such training of their own accord and often against their 
parent's wishes. Many of them were supported by the 
Manchu government and it was the insincerity of which 
finally turned them against it and destroyed it. 

With the revolutionary spirit in the atmosphere, the earlier 
reformers and revolutionaries saw their opportunities. There 
existed at least, three distinct parties. The first aimed 
to preserve the Empire which meant the restoration of Em- 
peror Kwang Hsu's reform program; the second desired 
to see the early adoption of the constitutional government; 
and the third had their object in the overthrow of the 
alien dynasty. The leaders of the first two parties, Kang 
Yu Wei and Liang Chi Chiao obtained some funds and sup- 
port from the Chinese settlers abroad but it was Dr. Sun 
Yat Sen who as the leader of the republican movement 



168 Y. S. TSAO 

captivated a large number of students in Japan by the organ- 
ization of the ''Tung Men Hwei." 

The aim of the said ''Tung Men Hwei" society was to 
ahenate the f eehngs of the people and to stir up a revolution 
against the Manchu government. The weekly called The 
People was published by them which contained articles 
depicting the corruption, tyranny and impotence of the 
Manchus. It was a short-lived paper for the Japanese 
government, seeking to strengthen her friendship with China, 
suppressed it. Another department of the "Tung Men 
Hwei" was called the "Kung Ching" which undertook to 
send agents to the various provinces of China to convert the 
officers and soldiers to become revolutionaries, while others 
were sent to the Chinese settlements to raise funds for the 
same cause. They also manufactured bombs and threatened 
to kill those soldiers who refused to join them. Among these, 
Hwang Shing, Liu King and Sun Wu were the greatest lead- 
ers. In Europe and America, there were no special organi- 
zations of that character. Quite a few, however, were mem- 
bers of the "Tung Men Hwei." 

In Europe, a revolutionary publication called Le Nouveau 
Siecle was published at Paris, but no secret organization 
was known to exist. 

Peeliminary Plots Under the Direction of Students 

Previous to the revolution of October 11, 1911, several 
preliminary plots were attempted under returned student 
leadership. The earliest one on record was in 1900, directly 
after the. Boxer uprising, when Dr. Yung Wing was elected 
president of a secret organization at Shanghai, consisting of 
leading officials, merchants and students who were exasper- 
ated at the most stupid political blunder of the Manchu 
government in making use of patriotic fanaticism as a means 
of stemming the onslaught of western nations. This plot was 
soon detected and ever after Dr. Yung Wing lived an exile 
at Hartford, Connecticut until his death last year. 

In 1907, there was a plot at Ping Shang in Anhui Province; 
in 1909, the Governor of Anhui was assassinated at An 



RETURNED STUDENTS AND CHINESE REVOLUTION 169 

King; in 1910 a plot was unearthed at Canton. Many 
returned students and bright young men sacrificed their 
lives in these attempts; but repeated failure only helped to 
arouse the public sentiment of the people and contributed 
to popularise revolutionary actions. 

It was generally admitted, however, that the Szechuan 
riot had no other signification than a movement against the 
^, nationalization of railways and that of Changsha was a 
protest against the rice monopoly. No one has been able 
to ascertain the object of the bomb thrown at the five com- 
missioners when they started from Peking to investigate 
into the constitutional governments of the world. The 
fear that the adoption of a constitution by the Manchu 
government might defeat the cause of the anti-Manchu 
' movement has been considered as the most plausible inter- 
pretation. There is no necessity for us to analyze all these 
preliminary plots. Suffice it to say, the ramifications of the 
secret societies were rapidly being extended throughout the 
country. 

The leaders of the revolution intended to start it simul- 
/ taneously in eight provinces, four months later than the 
actual date of the outbreak. The modus operandi and the 
personnel were fully prepared; proclamations for the public 
jj^c and badges for adherents were made; secret parties were 
traveling about winning sympathizers and supporters. 
General Hwang Shing at Hankow, General Wu Loh-tsunof 
the Northern Army, Liu King and Sun Wu at Wuchang and 
Chen Ki Mei at Shanghai were the chief leaders from Japan. 
General Li Yuan Hung from Japan played the most impor- 
tant part, but he was forced to join by the soldiery. 

Very few students from Europe and America were members 
of the "Tung Men Hwei," and judging from their actions 
only Mr. C. T. Wang, Drs. Chen Hui Wang and Chintao 
Chen from Yale were the only possible ones, while the rest 
were taken by surprise. 

Not counting Dr. Sun Yat Sen, Dr. Wu Ting Fang was 
the first returned student from England or America who 
joined the revolutionary cause at a critical moment, and he 
was supported in the revolutionary camp by many returned 



170 Y. S. TSAO 

students from Europe and America. Some of them joined 
the Red Cross Society as M. D. T. Yu of Harvard and Yang 
PaoHng of Purdue, while twenty of them returned from Amer- 
ica to take an active part in fighting. For example, T. S. Ma 
of Columbia and E. M. Ho of Chicago University. 

In passing, we must not fail to mention how the success of 
the revolution was in a great measure due to the sympathy 
of foreign nations. Judging from past experiences, upris- 
ings in China were always associated in the minds of men 
with imminent danger to foreign lives and property; but 
during the last revolution, foreigners were most scrupulously 
protected, which fact won for the revolutionists, the con- 
fidence of the world, as it was clear evidence of intelligent 
leadership and superior organization. 

It will be in order, perhaps, to give a comparative esti- 
mate of the parts played by the two groups of students show- 
ing why those from Japan were more energetic and revolu- 
tionary. The charge has been made against the returned 
students from Europe and America of being materialistic 
and self-seeking, and this charge has been repeated by some 
of the students themselves. Why more students in America 
did not join in the revolutionary movement before the revo- 
lution? The answer, I believe, is better made by presenting 
the causes and circumstances which made the students in 
Japan so radically revolutionary. 

First of all, the chief cause was the environment. With 
some 15,000 students located in the few educational centers 
of Japan; with a steady stream of political news from China; 
with numerous organizations for discussion, with lively 
topics furnished by the revolutionary organs as the magazine 
— The New People — published by Liang Chi Chiao and The 
People by the ''Tung Men Hwei," the revolutionary spirit 
was carefully nurtured. Moreover, the Chinese students 
could master the Japanese language in a few months, and as 
the curriculum was elementary, it was not too difficult for 
them. So that much of their time was spent discussing 
political questions and transcribing such views into Chinese 
for publication at home. Furthermore, this grouping to- 
gether of a large body of young men with similar political 



RETURNED STUDENTS AND CHINESE REVOLUTION 171 

views made them feel the power of union, as the mob psychol- 
ogist would say. That is why in California, Hawaii, Singa- 
pore and Java the like spirit is seen. 

Secondly: they were mostly older students of the old 
school and well versed in Chinese literature. The Japanese 
curriculum offers courses on modern Chinese history, giving 
the details of the Manchurian conquest which would natu- 
rally tend to stir up anti-dynastic feelings. Moreover, the 
Japanese friends of China who still reverence the past his- 
tory of China did advise, time and again, for the restoration 
of the government to the Chinese proper. During the time 
of the Boxer uprising, quite a number of Japanese writers 
counseled for the assassination of the imperial family while 
fleeing to Shensi. Besides, undoubtely the ultra-radical pro- 
pensities and the military atmosphere of Japan exerted a 
great influence upon the temperament of these earnest 
students. So likewise, the liberal atmosphere of France 
instilled revolutionary ideas and military Germany gave a 
martial spirit to students studying in those two countries. 

Lastly: Japan's high-handed actions in Korea and Man- 
churia together with the general attitude of the Japanese 
towards the Chinese, stirred their blood to boiling point, 
while a study of Japan's recent history, dates their modern 
era of progress to the restoration of the Meiji House. Hence, 
their logical deduction led them to pin their faith upon a 
revolution for a new China. By tracing the transition of 
medieval Japan into modern Japan they could almost map 
out step by step the course China should take; but the first 
step according to their conception, was a change of govern- 
. ment. Besides, a large number of them were poor and had to 
undergo a great deal of hardship and privation. Loving 
their fatherland strongly, desiring to save her from a great 
national calamity and having nothing to lose personally, 
they became a vociferous, destructive and desperately revo- 
lutionary body of men. 

On the other hand, in Europe and America, the handful of 
students was scattered over large areas; news from home was 
scanty with long intervals between; the difficulties with the 
language and the exacting curriculum occupied much of 



172 Y. S. TSAO 

their time; there were no revolutionary organizations or 
organs to furnish exciting topics for discussion. When 
authentic news arrived, it was about a month old and later 
developments might have already changed the situation, 
with the result that students could only speculate as to the 
outcome. That was why the students in Japan sent far 
more telegrams to the Government advising certain courses 
of action on great political issues than did the students in 
Europe and America. 

In the second place, most of the students here are younger 
and the technical courses taken by a large number of them 
in engineering, agriculture and other professional studies, 
are not conducive to revolutionary conceptions. The wide 
difference in languages and comparatively poorer scholar- 
ship in Chinese literature, make it impossible to transcribe 
any of our new ideas readily into Chinese for publication in 
China. Then, the local political conditions pursue an even 
tenor, the commercial spirit is transcendent, and the con- 
structive element is based upon educational, social and reli- 
gious reformation. 

No professors or friends were sufficiently versed in Chinese 
literature and history to advise a revolution which might 
endanger the lives and property of all their missionary friends 
and other foreign residents in China. The Christian influ- 
ence and missionary interest point to a goal of evolutionary 
development and Christian service to our country. Under 
such circumstances, in our more liberal students there has 
been built a broader and deeper personality adapted for 
slower constructive work. 

In the last place, the cold reception of the earlier returned 
students given by the government and people at home, does 
not lead us to expect any large following upon our immediate 
return as any revolutionary course of action would necessi- 
tate. We would have to vindicate ourselves by deeds and 
action that we are not semi-foreigners but as sincerely and 
deeply interested in the welfare of our country and people 
as any others who are loud in denunciation and quick in 
popularising the knowledge acquired. Besides of the 800 
students in America and the 400 in Europe, 250 here and 



RETURNED STUDENTS AND CHINESE REVOLUTION 173 

about 200 on the other side are government students and' 
sons of influential officials who would not desire to be left 
stranded in distant lands by premature iconoclastic expres- 
sions which would not materially help the cause. They had 
too much to lose and little to gain. Quite a large percentage 
of them, approximately 50 per cent, received their earlier 
training in missionary schools and their views have been 
tempered by the element of service which could be per- 
formed under any circumstances. Moreover, the contrast 
seen between the conditions in the west and those of China 
is greater than that between Japan and China; consequently 
the problems thy aim to solve are deeper rooted, and a change 
of government — desirable if it could be accomplished with- 
out endangering too much the status quo, is not the sine 
qua non for the modernization of China. That is why 
the students in the west would have liked to see a constitu- 
tional government through a peaceful reformation rather 
than a republic via a revolution. 

Nevertheless, while the greater part of the destructive 
work was done by the larger body of students from Japan, 
as soon as the students from Europe and America saw the 
desperate situation, they all heartily joined the cause, for 
they saw the die was cast, the Rubicon was crossed, and no 
alternative was possible. Some twenty-five students re- 
turned from America and about the same number went from 
Europe, while Japan emptied her whole consignment into 
the cauldron. The students in America declared themselves 
for the Republic through the columns of The Chinese Stu- 
dents' Monthly, the official organ of the Students' Alliance in 
February of 1912 in an announcement which read in part as 
follows: 

It might seem as if the student body here has not declared its 
interest in the political controversy of vast consequences early 
enough, but that evidently has been due to the lack of first hand 
information, the deliberate nature of our students, the indefinite- 
ness of the revolutionary leaders, and more especially the one-sided 
statements of the newspapers in this country. However, our 
sympathy has always been with the revolutionaries, for they repre- 
sent the progressive cause that will ultimately render it possible 
for China to come to her own. In the meantime, the provisional 



174 Y. S. TSAO 

republican government has been established and news from our 
fellow students, brothers and friends who are in the midst of the 
struggle, elucidate the actual conditions in China. Knowing them, 
we publicly announce the definite stand that the students are 
willing to make for the republic, the establishment of which will 
go down into history as the greatest event of the twentieth cen- 
tury — the pohtical emancipation of 400,000,000 souls. 

New occasions teach new duties, 

Time makes ancient good uncouth, 
They must Upward still and Onward, 

WhQ would keep abreast of Truth. 

^ — Lowell. 

Again, it was estimated that no less than 75 per cent of the 
provisional Republican Cabinet of Dr. Sun consisted of 
returned students from Europe and America, while even the 
coalition provisional cabinet of President Yuan Shih Kai 
had 50 per cent of them with Tang Shao Yi as the first pre- 
mier. 

To say that returned students from America and Europe 
would not entertain revolutionary ideas on account of mate- 
rialistic and selfish ambitions would be a charge too extrava- 
gant and the contention would fall by its own weight of 
exaggeration. For did not Dr. Yung Wing, the first student 
graduated in America, stake his whole life in a revolutionary 
attempt after four great constructive institutions, namely, 
the Kiangnan Arsenal, the China Merchants' Steamship 
Navigation Company, the National Telegraph System and 
the Educational Mission of the seventies. It was indeed an 
inspiring experience when the speaker called on this '^ Father 
of Modern Education in China" to discuss for two hours 
upon the comprehensive plan he was laying for the educa- 
tional, industrial and military reorganization of China, when 
he was invited by his friend. Dr. Sun Yat Sen to give his 
advice after the establishment of the republic. 

The ideal returned student from America is therefore not 
a destructive but a constructive man, and it was only when 
repeatedly defeated that he will adopt destructive measures 
as proved by Dr. Yung Wing and Dr. Sun Yat Sen, both of 
whom received the American and European influence of liv- 
ing a broader and deeper life. Nevertheless, we must give 
all credit to our fellow students from Japan from their intense 



KETURNED STUDENTS AND CHINESE REVOLUTION 175 

enthusiasm and patriotism and to the many earnest reform- 
ers among the people at home that gave such an impetus to 
the Revolution from the very start. 

The Task of Reconstruction 

A cowl does not make a monk and the name alone cannot 
transform China into a real republic. Reality and not ideal- 
ism is the sure basis of a modern state. Rabid emotion has 
played its part, and a mighty important part, in stirring up 
enthusiasm and devotion, but any continued indulgence 
in it, would sweep an individual or a community off its own 
feet, as history has proved time and again. China is no 
exception, and as the republic is established, it is time that 
enthusiasm should be superseded by discerning foresight and 
cool judgement, so that a strong, prosperous and centralized 
republic might be insured for the generations to come, 
as the problems yet to be surmounted are stupendous. 

During the revolution, the public sentiment in China 
demanded the adoption of the American government as the 
model and since the number of students in Japan is rapidly 
diminishing and as more students are coming to America, 
the responsibility resting upon their shoulders to develop 
China along republican ideals is consequently increased. 
If they are true to their training as was Dr. Yung Wing, the 
first student, then ''there is also a hope and promise that 
God means to build up in that land some strong, free and 
characteristic manhood which shall help the world to its 
completeness." 



AMERICAN AND JAPANESE DIPLOMACY IN 

CHINA 

By Masujiro Honda, D. Litt, Tokyo, Japan; Recently Editoi 
of ''The Oriental Review" 

From geographic and other causes, the United States of 
America has been comparatively independent, both poHti- 
cally and commercially, of the continents other than its 
own. This fact has enabled the Washington government 
occasionally to project unconventional ideas and principles 
into the arena of international dealings. While American 
diplomacy, therefore, may be a source of irritation to some 
nations, to others it may prove a cause for thankfulness. 
Whatever the result, American diplomacy bears a distinct 
stamp of its own, and does credit to the country of great 
ideals. Only when it is actuated by self-interest does this 
attitude defeat its own purposes and alienate the sympathy 
and respect of other nations. 

Japan's relations with China are as vital as those of 
England with the continent of Europe. Tokyo diplomacy 
can neither be purely academic, nor ignore the claims and 
sentiments of the four hundred million co-racials. Just 
as the British Empire would be threatened by the rise of 
a continental rival, so Japan's safety demands that no one 
of her three great neighbors, Russia, China, or America, 
should obtain an undue share of influence in the Far East. 
Moreover, the fact that European powers have vested inter- 
ests more firmly planted in China than has America, requires 
Japan to be more or less on the side of the former when 
Chinese problems are to be internationally settled. 

Besides this fundamental difference between American and 

176 



AMERICAN AND JAPANESE DIPLOMACY IN CHINA 177 

Japanese diplomacy in China, there is another point of 
divergence which makes the lack of understanding more 
apparent than real. In the democratic country with the 
Monroe doctrine theoretically accepted, international deal- 
ings have naturally to be guided by popular desires and to 
administer to private interests. Even such a disinterested 
act as that of returning to China the over-received part 
of the Boxer indemnity was made an occasion for educating 
Chinese youths in American colleges, which, it was claimed, 
would eventually further the trade, as well as foster the 
friendship, between the two peoples. American diplomacy 
is, in this way, more a matter of home politics than an 
international affair, as some shrewd critics have asserted 
with regard to the Panama Canal toll question, the Jewish 
passport case, and the withdrawal from the six-power loan 
group. Japanese diplomacy, on the contrary, has been 
characterised by a bureaucratic secrecy, and a tendency to 
take the people into its confidence after the inevitable had 
been accepted. This was notably the case with the terms 
of the Portsmouth peace treaty and the so-called ''gentle- 
men's agreement" to restrict Japanese immigrants to Amer- 
ica. In fact, a few years ago an English journalist advised 
the Japanese neither to apologise or explain, but to carry 
on their plans silently and tenaciously, for the reason that 
the outside world would be sure to suspect, criticize, or even 
incriminate whatever they did, as a result of the important 
position which Japan had then attained in world politics. 
Hence, the more need of frankly telling the American public 
what the Japanese have seen and felt concerning America's 
policies in China. 

The primary object of Commodore Perry's visits to Japan, 
sixty years ago, was to prepare an approach, an entrance 
to Chinese trade, which in those days was a goal of general 
European rivalry. This successfully accomplished, about 
thirty years later. General U. S. Grant, ex-President of the 
United States, cautioned Japan and China against the dan- 
ger of becoming a common prey to foreign aggressors, which, 
he said, would be the result, if the two Asiatic peoples were 
not banded together for mutual protection. As late as the 



178 MASUJIRO HONDA 

close of the Russo-Japanese war, there had been no single 
sign of conflict between American and Japanese diplomacy 
over the Chinese situation. As soon, however, as Japan 
inherited a part of the Russian lease of the Manchurian 
railway zone, a lease which does not expire until 1938, an 
anti-Japanese campaign was systematically inaugurated by 
the occidental press, which, in a more or less disguised form, 
the Washington government seemed to support. Beginning 
with the far-famed Rooseveltian pronouncement that 
"America must dominate the Pacific;" Taft's (then secre- 
tary of war) speech at Shanghai in 1907, which laid stress 
on the application of the open-door principle to the entire 
territories of China; Secretary of State Knox's proposal to 
neutralize the Manchurian railways by four powers, without 
consulting the wishes of the lawful owners of these railways; 
American support of a scheme to construct a new line of 
railway which would greatly reduce the usefulness of the 
Russo-Japanese line if the scheme was carried through; the 
newspaper agitation against the alleged Japanese rebate in 
Manchuria; the prominent part played by an American 
financier in the organization of the four-power group for 
Chinese loans, into which Russia and Japan were afterwards 
admitted with some difficulty; the recent withdrawal of the 
United States from the six-power group; and the independ- 
ent recognition of the Chinese Republic by the Washington 
government in the face of an agreement among leading 
powers to act in unison in this matter — all these happenings 
seem to indicate that American diplomacy attaches more 
importance to China's welfare than to the interests and 
sympathies of other nations. Whether this attitude is 
attributable to a noble aspiration to help an under-dog, or 
to a practical desire for commercial expansion, its historical 
development, independently of its psychological value, is 
well worth our notice. 

The traditional foreign policy of China was to set one 
strong nation to check another. It was in accordance with 
this principle that a triple European interference was invited 
at the close of her conflict with Japan. Again in the Russo- 
Japanese war, China hoped for a chance of recovering her 



AMERICAN AND JAPANESE DIPLOMACY IN CHINA 179 

lost rights in Manchuria without fighting. Should this 
plan fail, the late Li Hung Chang's shrewdness foresaw the 
possibility of driving out the two aggressors by means of 
the influence of the United States. This idea is referred 
to in his interesting diary while being welcomed in America 
on his way home from Europe. Washington diplomacy, 
on the other hand, readily embraced the opportunity of 
removing the offence it had given to China through the 
exclusion act, and of improving American trade with her 
vast population through various means of befriending China 
or of thwarting other powers. The gallant American now 
found an upper-dog in Japan, who had been an under-dog 
with regard to China and Russia. Hence the inevitable 
result of America and Japan becoming at cross purposes 
over China's affairs. 

American diplomacy has ever been welcome and success- 
ful where the abstract principles of humanity and justice 
are concerned, and when it has been free from the bare 
suspicion of self-seeking. This was notably the case in the 
timely declaration of the open-door policy in China and her 
territorial integrity — as also in inviting Russia and Japan 
to come to terms after their sanguinary struggle. In mat- 
ters touching the practical interests of other peoples, how- 
ever, American diplomacy would seem sometimes to put 
other nations into an attitude of mutual sympathy and 
common defense, and to weaken their respect toward the 
Monroe doctrine. For it is on the implicit understanding 
of America's non-interference with other continents that the 
continental republic is left free of outside interference. But 
the United States of America has now secured the necessary 
stepping stones (the Hawaiian Islands, Guam and the Philip- 
pines), across the Pacific Ocean to reach China and claim 
a due share of influence over her destinies. It is impossible 
to reconcile two such contradictory measures. In order to 
make its position tenable in world politics, American diplo- 
macy must needs choose between the horns of an awkward 
dilemma. It must either sacrifice the Monroe doctrine, or 
restrict its application within a much smaller sphere of 
influence, or return to its traditional avoidance of foreign 



180 MASUJIRO HONDA 

entanglement by staying on the high plane of international 
morality. 

Whichever general course America may eventually decide 
to take, it is evident to candid observers that America will 
not antagonize other powers out of a Platonic affection for 
China, that China realizes no nation but herself can work 
out her own salvation, and that Japan must be friendly 
with the teeming millions of China for commercial and 
other reasons. It would also be to China's advantage to 
utilize, at least for the present, the political and military 
supremacy of Japan in the Far East, as it would be Japan's 
wisdom to keep China always on her side. Commercial 
rivaly there is and will ever be, it is true; and some Euro- 
pean or American business men, who have lost ground 
through German or Japanese competition in China, may 
continue to agitate against their rivals. But broad states- 
manship discerns on the horizon unmistakable signs of a 
unanimous desire that all outside nations should cooperate 
for the peaceful consolidation of China's nationality, be it 
called a republic or a monarchical confederacy; and that, 
above all other things, America, China and Japan should 
work together for the preservation of tranquility on the 
shores washed by the Pacific waters. China with its depen- 
dencies is far more extensive in territory and far larger in 
population that the whole of Europe. Its social, political, 
economic, religious and racial differences may also be as 
great as those of Europe, or even greater. Its history is 
certainly much longer than that of Europe. It cannot, 
therefore, be through a recognition of this leader's republi- 
canism, or that statesman's rule, or through the lending of 
money by a group of nations, or by private individuals 
singly, that the destiny of the four hundred million souls 
shall be guided from without. Each province, each depen- 
dency, each race of China is a problem by itself, which 
requires a life time's careful study. That person or nation 
who thoroughly understands China as a whole, not any one 
region or party, is alone entitled to a voice in the parlia- 
ment of men for furthering the cause of China for the 
Chinese themselves. 



SOME OF CHINA'S PHYSICAL PROBLEMS 

By Charles K. Edmunds, Ph.D., President of the Canton 

Christian College and Observer in Charge of the 

Magnetic Survey of China Under the Auspices 

of the Carnegie Institution of Washington 

Physical well-being is the basis of national, as well as of 
individual life, in all its other aspects. China today faces 
an almost overwhelming gamut of problems, political, eco- 
nomic, social, industrial and educational. Many of them 
demand immediate solution, or at least, immediate attack. 
Some of the most pressing of these are what I would call 
physical. 

There is not time, and I would not be qualified if there 
were time, to give anything like a comprehensive discussion 
of the various physical problems that China faces. But 
in journeying widely throughout China during the last nine 
years, I have observed some of the surface aspects of several 
of these problems. These I shall try to present to you 
chiefly by means of the photographs I have secured.^ 

The primaries of an individual life are food, shelter and 
raiment. The primaries of a national life are these for all 
the people plus ways of communication and transportation. 

The poverty of the people is one of the most striking as- 
pects of life in China. Yet their industriousness is almost 
quite as striking. For most of them it is a tremendous 
struggle with no leeway. This results partly from the over 
emphasized necessity of producing progeny to do honor to 
the family ancestors, leading to the practice of early marriage 
and of polygamy, giving rise to over population without any 
disposition to migrate to less populated areas, nor indeed 
are there the facilities to do so or the knowledge of other parts 
that would invite such migration. These factors, combined 

1 The lecture was illustrated by a hundred slides mostly taken by the 
author. 

181 



182 CHARLES K. EDMUNDS 

with a ruinous policy during many centuries of using up all 
available timber, so that now almost everywhere the hill- 
sides are not only bare of trees but are literally scratched 
for roots each season, have so decreased the margin which 
the people have between a state of enough and that of utter 
want, that when the floods come, which they do almost 
annually in certain sections as a result of this ruthless defores- 
tation, vast numbers are subject to actual famine. 

The remedy is threefold: First a reduction of the birth 
rate as general education advances and a saner sociology 
prevails. 

Secondly, a comprehensive system of reforestation, for 
from a physical point of view the primary fact about China 
is that she has used up her trees. Reforestation on a small 
scale has been begun in some parts but much more needs to 
be done and the need for it must be made clear and appro- 
priate measures approved and financed. 

Thirdly, improved methods of agriculture must be intro- 
duced. What is needed is more extensive farming. The 
Chinese farmer is altogether a gardener. He is the world's 
best expert in intensive farming, and we can learn from him 
in that line; but he seems to know little of extensive farming 
as we know it in the West, or of the ways of improving varie- 
ties. Modern agricultural schools are being established and 
some large agricultural development schemes have been 
formed. We may expect to see considerable progress in 
due time. I would commend to you the late Professor 
King's ''Farmers of Forty Centuries," and G. W. Groff's 
pamphlet, "Agricultural Reciprocity between America and 
China."2 

I believe that one of the best examples of re-forestation is 
given by Denmark in which in the course of twenty-five 
years, a considerable area has been given full-grown trees of 
a quick-growing variety and the rainfall has already been 
markedly affected. It is not likely that the same conditions 
exist in China so that it will be at least two or three genera- 
tions before the conditions with reference to re-forestation 

^ Either of these can be secured from the Trustees of the Canton Christian 
College, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. 



SOME OF china's PHYSICAL PROBLEMS 183 

can be adequately altered. There must, in the meantime, 
be a survey of flood-subjected areas of the rivers involved 
SO that the adequate measures of protection may be carried 
out. During one of my recent trips in Anwhei Province, 
one of the regions of chronic famine, I met the American 
engineer, Mr. Jameson, who had been sent by the Red Cross 
Society for the purpose of determining in what way such 
protective works might be carried out, and I have noted 
recently in the press that President Taft has commended Mr. 
Jameson's report to President Yuan Shih Kai. But this 
task of determining what should be done for the control of 
the rivers and canals is a gigantic one and needs the atten- 
tion of the world's best experts. 

Chief among the rivers needing such control is the Yellow 
River, ''China's great sorrow." This is but little inferior to 
the Yangtsze in length, being nearly 2500 miles, running 
from southwest to northeast. But is is one of the most un- 
manageable rivers in the world and of little utility. It is 
a characteristic river of the loess region, with a broad shallow 
course which is apt to change. It owes its color and name to 
loess sediment. During the whole known historical period, 
this river has frequently changed its course for the last 
350 miles. These changes have swept over a fan-shaped 
areas of 60 degrees in one of the most densely populated and 
highly cultivated regions in all China, and have, consequently 
caused great loss of life both directly by flood, and indirectly 
by consequent famine through destruction of standing crops 
as well as of stored food supplies. 

Throughout its whole lower course, its waters run through 
the plain where it is most to be dreaded, because the mud and 
sand carried down by its stream have actually raised the bed 
of the river until it is several yards above the level of the sur- 
rounding country. Consequently there are few important 
towns on its banks. At its crossing with the Grand Canal, its 
bed is 16 feet above the level of the Canal. 

In 1642, the city of Kai fung, 350 miles inland, was sub- 
merged 20 feet, and 200,000 persons are said to have perished. 
In 1854 the river flowed into the Yellow Sea in latitude 34 
degrees N, but in that year it diverted near Kai fung fu, into 



184 CHARLES K. EDMUNDS 

a northern bed it occupied 550 years before, and joining the 
Ta tsing ho, discharged into the Gulf of Chihli, several hun- 
dred miles further up the coast. In 1887 a terrible inunda- 
tion occurred by the river bank giving in, and towns and 
villages were swept away. 

To hinder its overflowing, embankments hem it in, some 
nearer, others farther, ranging one behind another at variable 
distances. In this manner, if one gives way, another pre- 
vents the inundation. In its present state, the work is 
still very inefficient, the dikes being weak, and constructed 
with materials that offer insufficient resistance. 

The mud and sand which frequently obstruct the Yellow 
River, render it also very difficult of navigation. The only 
portion where it can be availed of, is to the north of Honan, 
and in the last 25 miles of its course. But even in this part, 
a shoal prevents junks except of very light draft from pass- 
ing. 

The flow of the Yellow River varies much with the season. 
It has been reckoned to be a little over 4000 cubic yards 
per second, in its middle portion, near Tsinan Fu (Shantung). 
The flow is three miles greater in the flood season. It is on 
the whole relatively small for such a great river, but this is 
partly accounted for by the waste of the water that filters 
through the embankments. The mud and sand, which it 
unceasingly deposits in the Gulf of Chihli, constantly lessen 
the depth of the latter, and form there new alluvial lands. 
Opposite the former mouth of the river (1851) one can see 
what great quantity of sediment was carried in its waters. 

The last serious breach in its dykes occurred in Septem- 
ber, 1902. The Chinese engineers showed great ingenuity 
in effecting its repair. The breach was near Liu-wang-chuang 
and was 1500 yards, through which most of the river flowed. 
It was repaired by building out from each side, dams in the 
form of a series of pakwerks of kaoliang stalks and sacks of 
clay, each pakwerk or buttress being joined to the previous 
one by ropes and pUes. 

Kaoliang is a kind of sorghum, probably identical with 
Barbados millet. The core of the stalk, except for a very 
thin and weak covering, is entirely pith, but it has a matted 



SOME OF china's PHYSICAL PROBLEMS 185 

bunch of fairly hard and strong roots which form its chief 
virtue for construction work. The stalk is about 6 feet long, 
f inch in diameter, and the bunch of roots, 3 to 5 inches in 
diameter. The face of the werk including the sides is com- 
posed of the roots which mat together and make a splendid 
surface for keeping out water. 

The final opening in this breach of 1500 yards, after pak- 
werks were built out from each side, was reduced to 55 feet, 
and this, after two disastrous attempts in which the lives of 
many workmen were lost, was effectively closed on March 
16, 1903, by letting down a huge mattress of kaoliang stalks 
and sacks of clay, the mattress being anchored to the side 
of the river by a great many 15-inch hawsers so as to pre- 
vent canting due to impact of current. Over one hundred 
8-inch ropes spaced closely together were stretched across 
and belayed to anchor piles. On these were than placed in 
alternate layers the kaoliang stalks and sacks of clay. When 
these materials reached the level of the sides of the dam, the 
ropes were manned, and at a given signal were each lowered 
1 foot on each side. 

The rush through the opening was reduced by the con- 
struction of a deflecting groyne on the up river side of the 
breach, constructed similar to the pakwerk, and projecting 
some 120 feet into the current. The width of the river 
channel abreast of the breach had been 600 feet but was 
reduced to 300 feet by the formation of a sand bank on the 
opposite side of the river. 

The control of the Yellow River is today one of the most 
pressing of China's physical problems. Experience has 
shown that the diking of such rivers is insufficient and 
almost futile. Captain William Tyler, coast inspector of 
the Chinese light house service, has presented a report on the 
Yellow River published by the inspectorate-general of 
customs at Shanghai in 1906, in which he proposes to con- 
trol the river's lower reaches by providing for the depositing 
of the silt by deliberate flooding of large areas along the river, 
that is, to regulate its floods. 

For this as well as for other rivers subject to floods, very 
comprehensive surveys should be made and the history of 



186 CHARLES K. EDMUNDS 

the streams involved secured as accurately as possible. It 
has been surprising to me to see how often the railway engin- 
eers have erred in China, from their inadequate attention to 
this factor of river history, and after costly experience have 
had to redetermine the level of their tracks when flanking a 
river or lake or to rebuild their bridges crossing a stream. 

Another example of Chinese engineering skill employed 
in protecting the land from the ''misbehavior" of rivers is 
the great sea wall along the north side of Hangchow Bay, 
of which I have elsewhere given a full account,^ and is, con- 
sidering the diflSculties under which it was built, one of the 
finest pieces of such engineering to be found anywhere. 

The Hangchow bore is caused chiefly by the funnel-shaped 
character of Hangchow Bay, combined with extensive mud 
and sand bars that occupy its mouth so that the tide in com- 
ing up the by instead of gradually rising, banks up near the 
entrance. The difference in level is such that a great wall 
of water anywhere from 10 to 30 feet in height rushes up the 
bay and up the river at a speed which sometimes equals 
that of an ordinary express train. This occurs twice a 
day and always amounts to a considerable wave, although 
sometimes it is much larger than others. Of course, an 
exceedingly strong wall is required to keep out such a mass 
of rushing water from the surrounding country which, as a 
matter of fact, is in many places below the level of the river. 
Some 750,000 taels are spent each year for the upkeep of 
this wall. It is built of heavy granite blocks joined together 
with double iron wedges and besides the wall which is ordi- 
narily 30 feet in height, there are two granite platforms or 
ledges each edged with a multiple series of long piles driven 
into the sand, constituting one of the strongest sea footings 
that could be secured to keep the wall from being undermined. 
At intervals of about half a mile for a good part of the wall, 
there are pakwerk buffers to deflect the current of the bore. 

As if these two cases of the devastating forces to be over- 
come were not enough to develop resourcefulness and hardi- 
hood in the people compelled to face them, the coast of 

^ Popular Science Monthly, February and March, 1908. 



SOME OF china's PHYSICAL PROBLEMS 187 

China is subject also to frequent typhoons, many of which are 
destructive of life and property in the extreme. I shall 
attempt no description of the typhoon and its origin, but 
wish by my pictures to call attention to the tremendous 
destruction caused by such storms. 

In order that there may be more timely warnings, there 
are needed more observatories and better coordination in the 
work of existing observatories throughout the Orient. There 
are, at the present time, well-established observatories at 
Zikawei near Shanghai, maintained by French Jesuit mis- 
sionaries; at Hong Kong, maintained by the British colonial 
government, and at Tsintau, the German concession on 
Shantung promontory. These observatories are more or 
less in receipt of communications from the observatories at 
Manila and Tokio, and there are also observations of more or 
less regularity at various light house stations along the China 
coast and at some of the ports by the harbor masters in the 
customs service. But, there is a great deal more than this 
to be done, and the whole work needs to be put upon a 
sound basis in its scientific work and in its administration. 

One of the best things that Sir Robert Hart did in con- 
nection with the customs service was to give the China coast 
its needed light houses, so that today it has a chain of such 
that will rival those found anywhere. 

The country at large needs also a weather service. While 
this is primarily the government's duty, missionary colleges 
at the present time have a real opportunity to assist China 
in this connection. The physics department of each of the 
colleges throughout the land should make adequate and sys- 
tematic meteorological observations so that when the time 
comes when the government is able to organize a service on 
its own basis, there will be qualified observers available and 
an accumuation of valuable data upon which valid generali- 
zations as to the meteorological forces in China may be based. 
All this is closely connected with re-forestation, extensive 
farming and the control of rivers. There should be a thor- 
ough meteorological survey as a necessary preliminary if these 
problems are to be adequately solved, for it will require at 



188 CHARLES K. EDMUNDS 

least twenty years to gather the data that will render gener- 
alization valuable. 

Partly as a preliminary to this, the Carnegie Institution of 
Washington has for over six years been carrying on magnetic 
observations throughout China in accordance with plans 
which I submitted to them to be carried out in connection 
with their magnetic survey of the North Pacific, and I 
shall treat briefly of the aims, scope and results of this mag- 
netic survey as a distinct contribution to the solution of 
China's physical problems. The results of such a survey 
are necessary to the land surveyor and to the navigator in 
order that when a magnetic compass is used either to steer 
a ship at sea or to run the lines of a survey on land, the user 
may know the amount accurately by which the needle devi- 
ates from the astronomical or true north. At each station, 
the observer determines latitude and longitude by astrono- 
mical observations; the compass deviation or declination, 
the dip of the magnetic needle and the intensity of the earth's 
magnetic force at that place. All these elements are neces- 
sary in order to predict the way in which the magnetic decli- 
nation from the north will vary with the years. The Car- 
negie Institution of Washington has extended its operations 
to China as a part of its plan to supplement the work of the 
constituted governments, who have not yet organized scien- 
tific services. Already fifteen of the provinces have been 
traversed and about a hundred stations have been occupied 
at intervals varying from 25 to 100 miles. The results for 
the years 1905-1910 are just being published and had pre- 
viously in part been made available to those chiefly inter- 
ested. Only three of the most western provinces and the 
greater part of Mongolia remain to be covered in this pre- 
liminary reconnaissance. 

Connected with this matter of surveys is the whole prob- 
lem of reform in weights and measures in China which are in 
utter confusion today. But while really a part of your topic, 
I shall not attempt here any discussion of this item. 

During my survey trips I have of course come to appreciate 
very feelingly the problem that China has with reference to 



SOME OF china's PHYSICAL PROBLEMS 189 

roads. The pictures show you a few typical cases which 
will indicate what a boon good roads would be and how much 
railroads would relieve conditions at present so hard to 
bear. In the south there are no roads only footpaths. In 
the north the cart roads are so ancient and worn that in the 
loess regions they are veritable ruts — sometimes as deep as 
70 feet below the level of the land on either side. 

One reason why roads have been neglected is the preval- 
ence of waterways, especially in the Yangtsze and Can- 
ton deltas, and throughout the whole country great use is 
made of even insignificant streams by boats of very shallow 
draft. All these should be improved by proper conservancy 
methods. 

Of special importance in this connection is the Grand 
Canal, the oldest and longest of canals. As the chief artifi- 
cial waterway in China I wish to present to you something 
of the history and present condition of this canal, illustrating 
this latter aspect with a number of photographs secured a 
few years ago when I made a trip in a house-boat all the way 
from the Yellow River to the southern terminus of the canal 
at Hangchow, about 700 miles. 

The Grand Canal, called in Chinese Yii-ho (Imperial 
River), Yiin-ho (Transport River,) or Yunliang-ho (Tribute- 
bearing river), extends from Hangchow in Chekiang to 
T'ientsin in Chihli, a distance of about 1000 miles. 

According to the most reliable accounts, it was commenced 
in the sixth century B.C., and finished in only A.D. 1283. 
The most ancient part is that which lies between the Yang- 
tsze and the Hwai-ho. The southern part, extending from 
Hangchow to Chinkiang, was constructed from A.D. 605 
to 617. The upper part, extending from the old bed of the 
Hwang-ho to T'ientsin, was constructed by the Emperor 
Shi Tsu of the Yuen dynasty, and completed within a space 
of three years (A.D. 1280-1283). Shi Tsu then transferred 
his capital from Hangchow to Peking. As the northern 
provinces were not very fertile, and the trade along the sea- 
board unsafe, he was forced to get provisions from the south- 
ern provinces. He therefore resolved to complete the work 
left unfinished by his predecessors. 



190 CHARLES K. EDMUNDS 

The southern portion, extending from Hangchow to 
Chinkiang, offers no difficulty as to its water supply. The 
slope is gentle and water is plentiful. Navigation on it is 
easy. Boats are sometimes retarded by bridges, but there 
are neither rapids nor locks to pass. The flood and tides 
of the Hangchow River are the only obstacles to overcome. 
Of the Bore Wall that does this, I have already spoken. 

The central portion extending from the Yangtze to Ts'ing- 
kiangp'oo is the most ancient. This part skirts several 
large lakes. It was formerly fed by the Yangtsze, and 
its stream flowed in a northwest direction. It is fed at the 
present day by the waters of the Hwai-ho, as they issue from 
the Hungtseh lake, and the stream runs in a northerly direc- 
tion. The current is fairly strong. The level of the country 
lying to the west of the Grand Canal and called the Shang- 
ho (above the river), is higher than the bed of the canal, while 
the country to the east, or Hsia-ho (below the river) is 
lower. Waste-weirs constructed on the eastern embank- 
ment, and opening on the Hsia-ho, discharge the surplus 
waters in the flood season, and thus relieve the banks and 
hinder injury of the works. There are few bridges in this 
portion of the Canal, but numerous ferry-boats facilitate 
passing at almost every place. This part of the Canal is 
far from offering the same advantages for navigation, at 
least, when one proceeds northward, as the southern por- 
tion. Boats, however, can easily travel on it and as on the 
southern section launch trains are regularly maintained. 

The northern portion, extending from Ts'ingkiangp'oo 
to T'ientsin, is the most recent and also the most difficult for 
navigation, and hence the least utilized. Between the Ts'ing 
kiangp'oo and the Hwang-ho, the Canal is fed from the 
Hwai-ho and the Wen-ho. Its highest point is at its junc- 
tion with the Wen-ho, just south of the Yellow River. 

The current flows in a northerly direction from the junc- 
tion of the Tawen-ho with the Grand Canal at Nanwang. 
The passage of the Hwang-ho is difficult. If the water fails 
to rise 7^ feet beyond the ordinary level, junks are unable 
to cross it. If it rises higher, the current becomes too strong, 
and so travelers must at times wait a whole month before an 



SOME OF china's PHYSICAL PROBLEMS 191 

opportunity offers to cross it. At Lints'ing, the Canal 
joins the Wei-ho, borrows its channel, and is again easily 
navigated. From Ts'ingkiangp'oo to Lints'ing, the Canal is 
navigable with difficulty. Water is often lacking, and the 
locks or chah (such is the term applied to the narrows that 
stem the velocity of the current and establish a difference 
of level above and below) constructed to remedy the draw- 
backs, are passed with difficulty. On the up-voyage the 
boat must be hoisted by means of hawsers, while in the down- 
ward trip, it must be kept in check. There are numerous 
capstans, and hands are not wanting (about eighty or one 
hundred men are at work at times), nevertheless, the opera- 
tion is not performed without trouble and risk of mishap. 

The tribute fleet, which carried the rice to Peking, for- 
merly followed this way, and comprised 4000 to 5000 boats 
divided into sixty-five sections. The voyage was performed 
but once annually. Of late years, the grain dispatched 
to Peking is largely forwarded by the sea route, through the 
agency of the China Merchants' Steamship Company. 

As a means of communication between north and south, 
this part of the Canal is at present of little value, as it is 
defectively constructed, silted up by the mud-laden waters of 
the rivers crossed, and rendered ineffective through official 
neglect. But it could be restored to usefulness and be of 
considerable value. 

In its southern and central portions, the Grand Canal, 
although badly kept up, is much more utilized, and several 
thousands of boats traffic on it. From Ts'ingkiangp'oo 
to T'ientsin, travelers frequently hire carts which jolt them 
on to Peking. But this is precisely the part I was most 
interested to traverse. 

Numerous officials were formerly entrusted with the up- 
keep of the Grand Canal, under the control of a director- 
general of the grain transport, or Ts-aoyun Tsungtuh. 
This official was of equal rank with the viceroys. He re- 
sided at Ts'ingkiangp'oo, as well as his first assistant, who 
bore the title of tribute Taot'ai, or Ts'ao-Hot'ai. The office 
of director-general of the grain transport was abolished in 
January, 1905. 



192 CHARLES K. EDMUNDS 

The pictures illustrate the details of the locks and their 
method of operation. They also show the dilapidated 
condition of the locks in certain places and the bad condition 
of the canal elsewhere. 

The ordinary canal lock consists of heavy granite bastions, 
forming a gateway and carrying on their opposing faces 
deep grooves in which are set heavy timbers to form a dam. 
These timbers are raised by means of heavy stone set cap- 
stans, and by closing any one dam on the opening of the one 
above it, enough water may be available until the down- 
coming boats have been enabled to navigate the shallows 
between it and the upper lock. Boats of shallow draft are 
able to go down on the flood and to navigate the shallows 
below this lock by the backing up of the water in the rear 
of the next down-canal lock, ascending boats being tracked 
up against the flood. 

Because of its position and the ease with which, from an 
engineering point of view, it could be put in a proper work- 
ing condition, it seems to me very important that the Grand 
Canal should be improved and thus afford a cheap method of 
transportation for a large section of the country even in 
addition to what railways may in the course of time be devel- 
oped. The Chinese are such natural boatmen that I think 
they would take easily to the handhng of boats on the Canal 
even with modern locks and modem towing methods and 
machinery. 

One of the most remarkable developments in the way of 
more rapid transportation in China has been the installation 
of so-called "launch trains," especially in the middle and 
lower sections of the Grand Canal and even more so through- 
out the Canton delta. For instance, in the custom house at 
Canton hundreds of steam launches are registered as towing 
between it and neighboring villages, anywhere distant from 
10 to 200 miles. These launches often tow two or three 
passenger barges in a line and are exceedingly well patron- 
ized both for passengers and for freight. Launch building 
ship yards have been rapidly developed in Shanghai, Canton 
and elsewhere. But, for the more rapid and adequate devel- 
opment of that ease of communication upon which so much 



SOME OF china's PHYSICAL PROBLEMS 193 

depends for the binding together of China, we must look to 
the railways. 

Railroads and other ways of transportation of commodi- 
ties are related to the life of a nation in pretty much the 
same fashion as the circulatory or blood system of the human 
body is related to the life of the individual — similarly the 
lines of electric transmission of intelligence and the postal 
lines correspond pretty closely to the nervous system whose 
functioning is so intimately a part of our bodily life. Each 
of these systems, the circulatory and the nervous, has a 
dominating centre which has a relationship of mutual depen- 
dence with all parts of the body and all functions of its life. 
No part can live alone. So the development of national life 
in China depends necessarily largely upon the development 
of these two systems within her borders, — that for the easy, 
cheap and rapid distribution of commodities, so that the 
people of one region may almost instantaneously relieve the 
hunger or want in another region, and that for the quick and 
effective transmission of intelligence which will cause the 
thrill of the new national life to be felt in the remotest parts 
and by every individual. 

Consequently, some indications of what has been done 
and what still remains to be done in the way of development 
of railways in China will be of interest. 

At the present time there are the following main lines 
already in operation : 

The system from Peking to Newchang and Mukden, via 
Tientsin and Shankaiwan which in turn is affiliated or con- 
nected with the Japanese railways in southern Manchuria 
and by them in turn connected with the Trans-Siberian 
Railway. It is of this Peking to Mukden line that Dr. C. C. 
Wang, who spoke to us so eloquently yesterday afternoon 
is an associate director. There is also the line from Peking 
to Kalgan and the Great Wall, constructed entirely under 
native direction. 

Second, the Peking to Hankow line crossing the Yellow 
River by one of the most wonderful of bridges and over which 
each week a train de luxe runs that will rival the best trains 
in other lands, making the journey in about twenty-eight 



194 CHARLES K. EDMUNDS 

hours. From this main line there also runs a connecting 
line westward to Taiyuanfu, the capital of Shansi, traversing 
a region very rich in soft coal. There is also the cross line 
connecting Kaifeng with Honanfu. 

Third, the German line in Shantung from Tsingtai to 
Tsinanfu where it now in turn makes connection with the 
most recently constructed road from Pukou to Tientsin 
which at its southern terminus on the Yangtsze is just oppo- 
site Nanking and thus virtually connects with the railroad 
from Nanking to Shanghai and Hangchow. 

Fourth, the French railway from Tonkin north-westerly 
to Yunnanfu, the capital of the Province of Yunnan, which 
has in my judgment been the most difficult of all to construct 
and the most costly in lives as well as money, and very costly 
to maintain on account of the frequent heavy landslides. 
Dear as it has cost it has, however, won for the French the 
domination in the trade of Yunnan. They have beaten 
the British who were so slow in constructing a road into 
Yunnan from the Burmese border. But the proposition is 
entirely a different one. This line from Burma would 
have to traverse at least two river valleys which are very 
difficult to cross while the French line running northwesterly 
has had a comparatively easy time in following up the Red 
River and one of its tributaries. Having seen for myself 
the difficulties which have been encountered in this easier 
route I am almost persuaded that the difficulties of the other 
could be taken as practically insurmountable except at most 
prohibitive expense. 

Fifth, the British-Chinese line from Kowloon (Hongkong) 
to Canton, the last of the major roads which has been fully 
completed. 

There are of course several minor roads, such as the 
American-built line from Canton westward to Fatshan and 
Samshui, the Japanese-built line from Swatow to Chow- 
chowfu, the Shanghai- Woosung line, the Nanking City 
Railway, and others. 

More important than these, however, are the other main 
trunk lines projected and in part already constructed. Most 
of the railroad development thus far has been confined to the 



SOME OF china's PHYSICAL PROBLEMS 195 

north-eastern quarter of the country. Lines connecting 
the north with the far south and the east with the far west 
are imperative and some progress is being made toward 
their realization. 

First among these we should mention the Canton-Hankow 
line which with the road northward from Hankow will give 
an all rail connection from the metropolis of Kwangtung 
to the national capital. Although begun over a decade 
ago under the auspices of the American-China Development 
Company, less than a hundred miles of this road are as yet 
in operation. The original holding company because of 
their failure to keep the explicit conditions on which the 
concession was granted was obliged to sell out to the Chinese 
government, and American prestige in China suffered a 
severe blow. I have traversed the route of the proposed 
line and consider it one of the very finest propositions for 
the development of a coal bearing region. 

Second among these projected roads, as yet but partly 
built, is the very important line from Hankow westward 
into Szechuan which will obviate the tremendous difficulties 
introduced by the gorges in the Yangtsze. 

Another important line projected is that from Yunnanfu 
to the Yangtsze at Chungking. 

There are many others but where the capital is to come 
from is a great problem. Most of the roads already built 
have been financed by foreign capital on the basis of conces- 
sions and some have already been handed over to the Chinese 
government for administration henceforth. Others have 
been joint enterprises in operation. Others are still com- 
pletely foreign concessions and are operated as such. Only a 
small part of the development has been under entirely native 
auspices. 

A good deal of the apparent opposition to the construc- 
tion of railways in China on the part of the people has grown 
out of violation of the ubiquitous graves rather than from 
any inherent objection to the railway itself. 

The people have now come fully to appreciate the advan- 
tages of railways and as we have already heard in this con- 
ference it was the imperial government's policy with refer- 



196 CHARLES K. EDMUNDS 

ence to railway administration that was the operating 
factor in starting off the revolution in Szechuan. Dr. Sun 
Yat Sen is now devoting all his time to the promotion of 
railways. Doubtless there will be within a reasonably 
short period tremendous development of railways in China 
and they in turn will have a tremendous welding effect upon 
the country. It is necessary that within her borders there 
should be developed well equipped technical schools in 
which the Chinese may be taught the arts and sciences 
necessary for the construction and maintenance of railways 
and other works. 

There is hardly time to refer in detail to the development 
of the postal system or telegraph lines in China, except to 
point out the tremendous success with which the postal 
system has been developed in that full-fledged post offices 
with the various departments are in operation all over the 
country and that a letter can be sent anywhere for the sum 
of 1 cent of our money, and that within a radius of about 60 
miles from Canton for instance, it may be sent for one- 
quarter of an American penny. 

Telegraph lines connect all provincial capitals with Peking 
and this system is being extended. It is not thoroughly 
understood as yet by all the people just how these things 
work and I am reminded of two instances which have come 
under my own observation to illustrate this. 

An old man in Shantung hearing of the function of the 
line of wire that ran across his fields declared that men who 
could devise such a method for the transmission of intelligence 
could do anything; wherefore one of his neighbors remarked 
that he did not think much of it, for he himself had sat for 
two weeks watching that line very closely and had not yet 
seen anything go by. 

The other instance was of Hunan carrying coolies tossing 
their worn-out straw sandals on the telegraph lines to secure 
for themselves a fleetness of foot equal to the speed of the 
electric message. 

The telegraph and the postal system have already, in 
combination with the development of the public press in 
China, done a great deal toward unifying the people and may 



SOME OF china's PHYSICAL PROBLEMS 197 

confidently be counted on for a much larger effect in the 
future and this combined with more adequate railway facili- 
ties will surely foster a greater feeling of nationhood and of 
closeness of relationship between the various provinces. 

We have seen something of the various physical problems 
which China faces. It is significant that the greatest physi- 
cal feat of the ancient Chinese, the Great Wall, which was 
executed to shut out foreign intruders, has been broken down 
in all essential respects, and China is today fairly ready for 
foreign assistance in solving her problems, if it be friendly and 
not predatory. 

The solution of Chinese physical problems largely depends 
on education; the education of the people to furnish the 
background of general enlightenment and the education of the 
native leaders upon whom must rest the responsibility for 
carrying out in detail such plans as may be formed for the 
alleviation of the conditions I have referred to. In order 
to determine just what remedial methods should be followed, 
there should be first a thorough study of present conditions 
by the best consulting engineers and scientists who can be 
secured. There is at the present time, it seem to me, a most 
important function for foreign experts to fill in connection 
with the development of China, and their work is a neces- 
sary preliminary and hence it is all important that China 
seek and use the assistance of such men, although it is also 
true that her need for such assistance will be temporary, and 
the application of the remedies, which they in their wisdom 
suggest after a study of the field, will still depend upon native 
talent. 

The new national flag of China embodies, I believe, some 
significant lessons in the present connection. The sewing 
together of five stripes of silk to form one flag is easy, but to 
make a united nation of five peoples so widely separated, 
linguistically and geographically, in a country so greatly 
accidented by mountains, and so harassed by flood and fam- 
ine, and so lacking the ways of quick transport and general 
modern education which must precede the development of 
resources and of ways of communication, requiring native 
captains of industry and native leaders of all sorts — a very 



198 CHARLES K. EDMUNDS 

much greater task. It is just here that one of the functions 
of our mission colleges in China comes in — to train these 
leaders in situ, without loss of connection with China; 
for they need to know China as well as Western science and 
institutions and methods. They need to be qualified and 
unselfish, then the five points of the compass assumed by the 
Chinese may be rightly adopted — for the north, east, south 
and west will then all be centered around the common pole 
of service to China, and from the provinces to Peking and 
from Peking to the most distant provinces, the people will 
be united in an efficient, peaceful and helpful state, at least 
within the boundaries left them by their at present more 
powerful and predatory neighbors. 



THE WESTERNIZING OF CHINESE MEDICAL 
PRACTICE 

By Charles W. Young, M.D., Professor of Bacteriology and 
Pathology, Union Medical College, Peking 

Before considering the process and status of the westerniz- 
ing of Chinese medical practice, it is well to be oriented as 
to what it is that is being changed. Briefly what is Chinese 
medical practice? 

Let us approach this question with open mind. It is 
easy to ridicule what is not understood. Racial prejudice 
is not confined to the Chinese and if we take the trouble to 
study the original sources, not only much of interest will be 
found, but some information of real value. Often it is stated 
in strange terms and based on bizarre theories, but the expe- 
rience of centuries is behind it and parts deserve investiga- 
tion by modern methods of research. 

In our glance at Chinese medicine it is to be remembered 
that Chinese civilization is in the stage occupied by the 
European nations in the middle ages. It has been in much 
the same condition of suspended animation for two millen- 
iums. Thus if we get a view of Chinese medicine it will be 
one of that practiced by them in the times of the Greeks and 
Romans. More than that it is extremely interesting to note 
that the theories of cosmogony of the Chinese run parallel 
to those of the Greeks, and that the theories of pathology 
of each are based on those of cosmogony. To illustrate: 
The Greeks believed that the universe was composed of 
four elements, viz., earth, air, fire and water, and that conse- 
quently the human organism was composed of these primi- 
tive substances. Health was conditioned on the proper 
proportion or balance of these constituents; disease on the 
disproportion or loss of balance. These views of Empedocles 
(fifth century B.C.) in a modified form permeate not only the 
pathology of the Greeks and Romans, but of all writers up 

199 



200 CHARLES W. YOUNG 

to the eighteenth century. To this was added the so-called 
humoral theory, i.e., that the body fluids consist of blood, 
phlegm, yellow and black bile; and that to these correspond 
the four elements noted above, fire, air, water and earth, 
and the four conditions of matter, warm, cold, moist and dry. 
The predominence of one fluid over the others produce differ- 
ent temperaments, viz.; sanguine, phlegmatic, bilious or 
choleric and melancholic. 

The Greeks, knew very little of human anatomy. They 
feared the dead and their religion enjoined immediate 
burial. Their knowledge of anatomy came from dissection 
of animals, including apes, and from observations during 
surgical operations. 

The ancients did not differentiate between tendons, liga- 
ments, and nerves. They believed that arteries contained 
air and conveyed it to the various organs. 

While in Greece there was a well-defined medical cult, in 
Rome anyone who wished could declare himself a physician. 
There were no laws, which complied with, guaranteed the 
capacity of the practitioner, and medical responsibility was 
extremely limited. 

I have taken time to enumerate these matters because of 
the striking similarity to Chinese theories and practices. As 
with the Greeks, the theory of cosmogony agreed on, patho- 
logy and treatment are perfectly rational. To the Chinese 
the universe is composed of five elements, metal, earth, fire, 
wood, water, each derived in turn from the succeeding. Cor- 
responding to these are the five conditions cold, windy, hot, 
dry, moist. Health depends on the balance or correct pro- 
portion of these elements. Moreover there are added the 
great dual influences, the Yin and Yang, or female and male, 
negative and positive, dark and light. The Yin (elemental 
moisture) resides in the solid or semi-solid viscera, the liver, 
heart, lungs, spleen, and kidney. The Yang rules the con- 
tractile hollow organs, the large intestine, small intestine 
bladder, gall-bladder and stomach. The liver corresponds to 
wood, the heart to fire, the spleen to earth, the lungs to 
metal, and the kidneys to water. Each solid organ has a 
hollow viscus as its assistant or minister; thus the liver is 



WESTERNIZING OF CHINESE MEDICAL PRACTICE 201 

assisted by the gall-bladder, the heart by the small intestine, 
the spleen by the stomach, the lungs by the large intestine 
and the kidneys by the urinary bladder. The Uver is the 
seat of the soul; the gall-bladder of strength and courage. 
The lungs regulate temperament, and so on. 

Diagnosis rests mainly on the examination of the pulse and 
the inspection of the face and tongue. The pulse is palpated 
with greatest care and detail. The patients' wrists are felt 
in turn by the physician with the three fingers of the opposite 
hand, each finger revealing the condition of a different pair 
of organs. Light and heavy palpation differentiate respec- 
tively between the hollow viscera and their corresponding 
or governing solid organs. Fifty-one chief types of pulse are 
recognized. The face is minutely inspected. There are 
thirty-seven appearances of the tongue. 

For the treatment of disease the Chinese have a very 
extensive materia medica. Many of their drugs are also 
used in the West, as calomel and other forms of mercury, 
arsenic, copper sulphate, iron, sulphur, sodium sulphate, 
alum, armnonium chloride, rhubarb, pomegranate root, cam- 
phor, aconite, cannabis indica, musk, ginger, licorice, anise, 
cinnamon, gentian, cardamons, peppermint, aloes, orange 
peel, castor oil, and digitalis. In addition there are many 
inert or disgusting substances, e.g., insects, snakes' skins, 
recent and fossil bones of animals, and faeces of men and ani- 
mals. But the Chinese are not peculiar in this. The London 
Pharmacopoea, the first in England, was compiled by the 
Royal College of Physicians in 1618. It contained crabs' eyes, 
pearls, oyster shells, and coral, each supposed to have differ- 
ent qualities. It also recommended formulae containing 
faeces of men, dogs, mice, geese and other animals, calculi, 
human skull and the moss growing on it, blind puppies and 
earthworms. Not until 1721 were important changes made 
and even that edition retained dogs' excrement, earthworms, 
and the moss from human skulls. 

Chinese prescriptions contain many ingredients, usually 
nine or ten, often fifty. The same was true in the West one 
or two hundred years ago. The ingredients of the prescrip- 



202 CHARLES W. YOUNG 

tion are divided into the ruler, minister and subordinate 
corresponding to our basis, adjuvant and corrective. 

Organotherapy is popular among the Chinese. Liver, lung 
and kidney of animals are given for human disease of those 
organs. Gall, especially of tigers, bears and notorious ban- 
dits is eaten to secure courage. Tigers' bones are considered 
the supreme tonic. Even human flesh is used occasionally, 
a son or daughter sacrificing a bit to cure a wasting disease 
of a parent. The ignorant have explained the strength of 
foreign medicines by supposing that these remedies were 
refined from the organs of kidnapped victims. The Tientsin 
massacre of 1870 grew out of the spread of such reports. It 
has been common rumor that foreign doctors pluck out the 
eyes of their patients. Personally I have known of an 
American physician who felt it necessary to guard the reputa- 
tion of himself and his hospital by requiring the presence of 
a responsible friend at the operation of enucleation of an eye 
to receive the organ and so guard against senseless rumors. 

At least since the eleventh century the Chinese have prac- 
ticed inoculation against smallpox. The directions were 
very minute. The season and condition of the subject were 
taken into account. A wad of cotton moistened with the 
contents of a pustule from a mild case of smallpox was 
introduced into the nostril, or a dried pustule was powdered 
and rubbed into the nares. 

The Chinese have never been surgeons, not from lack of 
handicraft but from lack of knowledge of anatomy and of 
methods of stopping the flow of blood. Almost their only 
procedures are acupuncture and counterirritation by heat 
variously applied, or by scraping. Acupuncture is very 
common. The safe spots 388 in number, are indicated on 
two figures prepared by imperial order in 1027 A.D. These 
mannikins are still in use in the T'ai I Yiian (Imperial 
Medical College) in Peking. The locations into which 
needles may be introduced include the joints, abdomen, and 
eye. An ancient surgeon is said to have rendered his patients 
anaesthetic by giving them medicine internally. The name 
of this drug is not given but it is supposed to have been 



WESTERNIZING OP CHINESE MEDICAL PRACTICE 203 

Indian hemp or hyocyamus. The Chinese do use the latter 
to induce sleep. 

China has officials corresponding to our coroners. Their 
training is based on an official codex published in 1248 A.D. 
■ — a time at which Europe possessed nothing of the kind. 
Although it contains many absurd tests such as abounded in 
Europe a few centuries ago, it also has some shrewd methods 
of determining the cause or manner of death. Only the 
exterior of the body is examined. 

Medical practice is ranked low among the callings in China. 
Physicians are considered a little above priests but below 
diviners and school teachers. After gaining a familiarity 
with the medical classics, an apprenticeship with an experi- 
enced practitioner is considered necessary. If the novitiate 
can point back to several generations of successful physi- 
cians, his reputation will probably be greater from the start. 
Professional visits are made only on specific invitation and 
several physicians are likely to be called in rapid succession, 
and discarded with their treatment unless immediately suc- 
cessful. The bearing of this on cases that require time and 
careful observation and supervision can be appreciated. 
Fees are small and the cost of treatment is likely to be the 
subject of bargaining. Medical ethics it must be confessed 
are not very high. Probably it is this that causes physi- 
cians to be held in comparatively low esteem. A work on 
medical ethics published during the Ming dynasty says: 

When a patient is severely ill, treat him as thou wouldest wish 
to be treated thyself. If thou art called to a consultation, go at 
once and do not delay. If he ask thee for medicine, give it to him 
at once and do not ask if he be rich or poor. Use thy heart always 
to save life and to please all; so will thine own happiness be exalted. 
In the midst of the darkness of the world be sure there is someone 
who is protecting thee. When thou art called to an acute illness 
and thinkest with all thy might of nothing but making money out 
of the patient, if thy heart be nor filled with love of thy neighbor, 
be sure that in the world there is someone who will punish thee. 

This is good, but with it contrast the Hippocratic oath: 

I swear by Apollo the physician, and iEsculapius and Hygiea 
and Panacea and all the gods and goddesses, that according to my 
ability and judgment, I will keep this oath and this stipulation 



204 CHARLES W. YOUNG 

. I will follow the system of regimen which, accord- 
ing to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my 
patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous. 
I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest any 
such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to any woman a 
pessary to produce abortion. With purity and with holiness I 
will pass my fife and practice my art Into what- 
ever houses I enter, I will go into them for the benefit of the sick, 
and will abstain from every act of mischief and corruption; and, 
further, from the seduction of females or males, of freemen and 
slaves. Whatever, in connection with my professional practice 
or not, in connection with it, I see or hear, in the life of men, which 
ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not divulge as reckoning 
that all such should be kept secret. While I keep this oath un vio- 
lated, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and the practice of the 
art, respected by all men in all times! But if I should trespass and 
violate this oath, may the reverse be my lot! 

We must remember that it is the spirit of Hippocrates that 
has animated the profession in the West from the earliest 
times and has preserved it from becoming mercenary. To 
elevate medicine in China to the plane it occupies with us 
is one of the great tasks before us. 

While in China anyone may become a medical practi- 
tioner by hanging out his shingle, there are some restrictions. 
Section 297 of the criminal code orders that 

Whenever an unskillful practitioner in administering medicine 
or using the puncturing needle, proceeds contrary to the estab- 
lished forms, and thereby causes the death of a patient, the magis- 
trate shall call in other practitioners to examine the medicine or 
the wound, and if it appears that the injury done was uninten- 
tional the practitioner shall then be treated according to the statute 
for accidental homicides, and shall not be any longer allowed to 
practise medicine. But if designedly he depart from the estab- 
lished forms, and deceives in his attempt to cure the malady in 
order to obtain property, then according to its amount, he shall 
be treated as a thief; and if death ensure from his malpractice, 
then, for thus having used medicine with intent to kill, he shall be 
beheaded (translation in Williams' Middle Kingdom). 

A few years ago a law was enacted requiring examination 
and registration of all practicing western medicine but it 
has not been enforced. 

It is said that during the T'ang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.) 
medical schools flourished throughout the empire but they 
have disappeared, the only trace being the T'ai I Yiian or 



WESTERNIZING OF CHINESE MEDICAL PRACTICE 205 

Imperial Medical College in Peking. This institution trains 
the court physicians and also gives other practitioners the 
opportunity of study. In the Imperial Court there are 
nine physicians, specialists in the nine classes of diseases that 
affect the pulse violently or feebly; viz.: those arising from 
cold; those from female diseases; those from cutaneous dis- 
eases; those requiring acupuncture; diseases of the eyes; 
diseases of the mouth and its parts; and lastly diseases of the 
bones (Williams' Middle Kingdom). 

While there are no medical diplomas or licenses in China, 
there is a custom which answers much the same purpose. 
When a patient is cured he often presents to the physician, 
a laudatory tablet. This bears a quotation from the classics 
or is couched in the flowery classical language. It is a testi- 
monial; and the front, as well as the interior of the house of the 
physician is hung with many of these boards. This method 
is that of announcing a successful career rather than licensing 
the trained but untried novitiate. There is some reason in 
the practice and it is natural that it should have grown up 
where there is no system of examination or licensing at the 
end of the preliminary training. 

What has been said thus far appUes to those who may be 
caUed ethical Chinese physicians. Besides these, but not 
sharply marked from them (as is also the case with us) is a 
great army of charlatans, who by vehemently affirming the 
excellence of their wares, or their great wisdom, by psychologi- 
cally the same methods of those in the West delude the 
ignorant. It is this class that gives the worst name to Chinese 
medicine. The best is painfully inadequate, but this, like 
ours, is limited only by the gullibility of its dupes. To this 
or another class, as you choose, belongs the third group of 
practitioners— the priests. Many temples or shrines are 
sought for their reputed cures and often are hung thick 
with the lauditory scrolls above mentioned. Usually the 
suppHant drops his fee into the receptacle, and then holding 
JDurning incense in his hands, prostrates himself before the 
image or other object of devotion. He then draws a bam- 
boo slip from the bundle presented by the priest. The 
number on the slip corresponds to that of a printed formula 



206 CHARLES W. YOUNG 

on a rack nearby. This prescription is taken to any druggist 
who fills it. Essentially this is not greatly different from 
some cults that may be met in any of our own cities today, 
but it especially reminds us of the miracle-working shrines 
of Europe. 

This description on Chinese medicine has been given in 
order that we may have some understanding of the atmos- 
phere into which western medicine is being introduced. 

The record of the early contact of China with western 
Asia and Europe is very imperfect and that of the introduc- 
tion of western medicine still more so. The earliest account 
that I can find of western physicians in China is that the 
Persian records show that in the thirteenth century the 
Great Kahn had Christian physicians attached to his court. 
"This .... is interesting for the Mongol history, 
which in one place says that Aisie (perhaps Isaiah) was a 
Fuh-Lin man (Frank) a Unguist, astrologer and physician, 
actually asserts that he served Kyuk Khan and that sub- 
sequently in 1263 was chief physician and astrologer to Kub- 
lai; in 1273 he is once styled a Mussulman and his hospital at 
Peking was officially called the Broad Charity." (E. H. 
Parker's China and Religion, p. 181). This hospital was 
opened in 1272. 

The records are much clearer regarding the services of 
certain Jesuit fathers who were attached to the court of 
K'ang Hsi, who reigned from 1662 to 1723. It is recorded 
that in 1692 they cured the emperor of an attack of fever 
after his life was despaired of by his own doctors. This cure 
was by means of quinine. The new medicine was tried on 
several of the courtiers before the emperor was permitted to 
taste it. The attempt of the same emperor ''to introduce 
western anatomy by means of a translation of the anatomy 
of Pierre Dionis by the Jesuit P. Perennin, was frustrated 
through the opposition of the native doctors" (Neuberger's 
History of Medicine, vol. i, p. 63). In his memoirs, Father 
Ripa (p. 42-43) who went to Peking as an artist in the court 
of K'ang Hsi, tells of a lay brother who attended the twen- 
tieth son of the emperor and gave a favorable prognosis, 
but the boy died. He was ''kicked, cuffed and beaten so 



WESTERNIZING OF CHINESE MEDICAL PRACTICE 207 

severely by the order of the emperor that he fell seriously 
ill." He further says, ''I was acquainted with some medical 
men who attended one of the imperial family," and were 
flogged and imprisoned for unsuccessful treatment. Taught 
by these and many other occurrences, th6 Jesuits who were 
in the emperor's service as mathematicians, painters, watch- 
makers, surgeons, and in other capacities would never under- 
take to serve him as physicians. But he records that Father 
Rod accompanied the same emperor to Jehol as surgeon. 
Father Ripa fell from his horse and was treated by a ''Tar- 
tar surgeon" (p. 67). He says, ''to confess the truth, al- 
though the mode of treatment was of a barbarous descrip- 
tion, and some of the remedies appeared useless, I was cured 
in a very short time." Because of fear of encroachment 
by the countries to which they belonged, the Roman Catho- 
lic missionaries were driven from the country. The next 
contact with the West began with the East India Company in 
Canton. In 1805 Mr. Alexander Pearson introduced vacci- 
nation at Canton and before he left in 1832 saw a large vac- 
cine institution estabhshed. Fifteen years later, (1820), 
Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary to China, 
opened a dispensary for Chinese in connection with Mr. 
Livingstone, surgeon to the East India Company. It was 
conducted by Chinese practitioners of the old school. In 
1827, Mr. T. R. Colledge, also surgeon to the East India 
Company opened and conducted a hospital at Macao. It 
was supported by the Company and by private merchants. 
More than 6000 cases, especially diseases of the eye were 
treated in the five years of its existence. His greater serv- 
ice, perhaps, was his advocacy to the missionary societies 
of the use of physicians as pioneers in missionary work. All 
these men that have been mentioned were British, but it 
remained for an American Society, the American Board of 
Commissioners for Foreign Missions, to send the first medi- 
cal missionary to China. This was the Rev. Peter Parker, 
M.D., who opened an ophthalmic hospital in December, 
1834. From his work grew the Medical Missionary Society 
in China, founded three years later, and which still continues 
its good work in Canton. In 1852, Dr. Parker was appointed 



208 CHARLES W. YOUNG 

United States minister to China. His successor was Dr. 
J. G. Kerr, of the American Presbyterian Mission, whose 
record of 1400 operations for cystic calcuh, is second only 
to that of Sir Wilham Thompson. The work of the Medical 
Missionary Society was not limited at that time to Canton, 
but was the pioneer in cooperation with British and American 
Missionary Societies, in locating physicians in Amoy, Ningpo 
Hongkong and Shanghai. In this connection, the name of 
the first British medical missionary should be mentioned — 
Dr. William Lockhart, who arrived in 1839 and began his 
work in Macao, later going to Hongkong, Chusan, Shanghai 
and eventually to Peking. In twenty years he treated over 
200,000 patients. Among these early men Dr. Hobson, 
also of the London Missionary Society, should be noted on 
account of his work of translation. In 1850, he prepared a 
work on anatomy and physiology; one on air, light, heat 
and electricity, and the elements of astronomy and natural 
history; as well as others on the principles and practice of 
surgery, on mid-wifery and diseases of children, and on the 
practice of medicine and materia medica, the last with an 
English and Chinese vocabulary. With the exception of the 
abortive effort of Father Perennin under K'ang Hsi, these 
were the first attempts at the translation of western science 
into the Chinese language. ''Shortly after the appearance 
of the first of the series, it was re-published by the viceroy of 
Canton and then by Chinese pubhshers." Later they were 
printed in Japan, then just opened to intercourse with the 
West, but all reference to their western origin and to the 
Christian religion contained were omitted (Lockhart's 
Medical Missions in China). 

It is of interest to note that ether was first used as an 
anaesthetic in Canton in 1847, the year following its demon- 
stration in Boston and that the report of the Medical Mis- 
sionary Society for 1848-^9 notes the first use of chloro- 
form. 

After the beginning of medical missionary work in Canton, 
new cities were opened as fast as the treaties permitted the 
residence of foreigners. The treaty of Tientsin in 1858 
allowed missionaries to reside in any part of China and a 



WESTERNIZING OF CHINESE MEDICAL PRACTICE 209 

rapid expansion of the work followed until every province 
has its physicians, hospitals and dispensaries. In some 
places these hospitals are well equipped; in others fair work 
is being done under very unfavorable conditions. The 
efforts of medical missionaries are noted because they out- 
number, many times, all the other qualified practitioners of 
western medicine and because they are scattered every- 
where, forming, like their clerical and education colleagues, 
centers where the leavening of China with modern ideas 
has been, and is being carried on as by no other agency. 
The extent of their work in the aggregate may be judged from 
the incomplete returns from the 415 medical missionaries 
for the year 1910. The figures cover only 126 hospitals 
with about 6700 beds, representing 175 physicians. These 
men and women and their assistants treated 51,121 inpatients 
in their hospitals and 1,548,707 outpatients in the dispen- 
saries, on tours, and in the patients' homes. The last number 
represents both first and return visits, the number of each 
being nearly the same. From these figures it can be seen 
what an influence these workers must be exerting in bringing 
a knowledge of western medicine to the masses as well as the 
classes of China. These hospitals and dispensaries have a 
further part in the same work, in the training of assistants. 
By this I do not mean those hospitals that are attempting 
to give full medical courses. From lack of sufficient medical 
colleges, every doctor is compelled to a large extent, to train 
his own helpers. Often these men stay only a few years, 
until they have a smattering of knowledge, and then leave 
to take up positions in government dispensaries or more 
frequently, to open drug shops and to practice western medi- 
cine on their own accounts. There is no medical practice 
law to prevent this. These men are often no credit to their 
teachers and any moderately efficient law should cut many of 
them off. On the other hand, some of them have very suc- 
cessful practices and wide reputations. 

Unfortunately medical contact with the West has brought 
bad as well as good — not unlike our contributions in other 
directions. Few quacks have established themselves thus 
far, though several years ago the Chinese public was relieved 



210 CHARLES W. YOUNG 

of considerable money by an "electric belt" fakir. ^ More 
to be deplored than quacks at present is the rapidly extend- 
ing exploitation of patent and proprietary medicines. Wil- 
liams' Pink Pills and Doan's Kidney Beans (to mention two 
great offenders) together with a legion of Japanese nostrums 
are found advertised and sold everywhere. Many Chinese 
reading the specious testimonials, are led to believe that 
these are western remedies of accepted worth and pay $2.50 
for six bottles of Williams' Pink Pills which the analyses 
of the British Medical Association show to consist of carbon- 
ate of iron and to cost about 10 cents. We are beginning a 
fight in this country against these enemies of health. It is 
no wonder that they turn to the countries now opening to 
western commerce to ply their trade where publicity and 
pure food laws may not trouble them for some time. 

The Chinese government, national or provincial, has 
opened in several cities, hospitals or in more cases dispen- 
saries. The board of the interior (Men Cheng Pu) has 
maintained two large dispensaries in Peking for a number of 
years. Some hundreds of patients are treated there daily. 
They may choose between the old style Chinese practise 
and western medicine. I am told that about three times as 
many choose the former as the latter, especially for medical 
as contrasted with surgical ailments. The fact that there 
are no wards for inpatients where they can receive the neces- 
sary after treatment accounts in part for the disproportion. 
In hospitals conducted by foreigners, the number of surgical 
cases is much greater than the medical among the inpatients. 
And this brings us to an interesting fact ; namely, that while 

1 Mr. C. B. Towns, to whom Mr. Bland referred in his address as an expert 
in the treatment of the opium habit, belonged to the borderline of legitimate 
business. Without any medical knowledge, he took a secret remedy to 
China and tried to persuade the Chinese government to purchase it from 
him. I mention this because this conference should not be left with the 
idea that Mr. Bland evidently meant to imply, i.e., that the Chinese govern- 
ment was insincere in its attempts at opium reform because it would not 
take expert advice when offered. Further it should be said that Mr. Town's 
remedy, the formula for which is now known, contains as its active agent, 
a drug which may be exceedingly dangerous in unskilled hands, yet this 
man, himself without medical training, proposed to scatter it abroad for 
general use in the hands of the laity. 



WESTERNIZING OF CHINESE MEDICAL PRACTICE 211 

the Chinese reahze that western surgery is so infinitely- 
superior to their own that there is no comparison, many of 
them, I believe it may be said most of them, as yet prefer 
the old Chinese school for internal diseases. The reasons 
for this are fairly clear. There is no Chinese surgery; no 
knowledge of anatomy nor pathology; no antisepsis nor 
asepsis, nor anaesthetics, nor means of haemostasis. It is 
easy to see why western surgery seems almost miraculous 
to them. In the case of medicine it is different. The 
western physician does not feel the pulse with the extreme 
care of his Oriental confrere. He cannot diagnose the con- 
dition of all the internal organs by this means alone. There- 
fore, in the eyes of most of the Chinese his skill is much 
inferior. Moreover, he does not use the terminology with 
which his patients are familiar. He does not know what 
diseases belong to the Yin and which to the Yang, which to 
the hot, cold, moist, dry and windy. He does not even 
know whether his remedies are contrary in nature to the 
disease for which they given. He does not require partial 
abstinence from food while under treatment as the Chinese 
physicians frequently do. Moreover, he uses unheard of, 
and sometimes repugnant methods of diagnosis and treat- 
ment; he requires the patient to expose the part of the body 
affected no matter what it may be; he thumps and Ustens to 
and examines the whole body. He uses cold baths in fevers 
— whoever heard of such a thing! And finally the Chinese 
beheves that his own physicians cure as many as or more 
than the western doctor. Very frequently he goes to the 
westerner only as a last resort after all the native doctors 
have pronounced his case hopeless. The Chinese habit 
of going from one doctor to another prevents success in those 
diseases which require long careful watching and treatment. 
It is almost impossible to get a Chinese to become an in- 
patient when one can only promise him that after a long 
stay, perhaps he may be improved, but that a perfect cure 
is out of the question. The fact is that western methods of 
treatment do not produce such startling cures in medical 
as in surgical cases. In comparing the results of the two 
systems, rehable statistics are almost unobtainable. The 



212 



CHARLES W. YOUNG 



only ones available are those given by Jeffreys and Maxwell 
in their book Diseases of China for the Tung Wah Hospital, 
Hongkong for 1905. These show 



General diseases 





ADMISSIONS 


DEATHS 




Western 
treatment 


Chinese 
treatment 


Total 


Western 
treatment 


Chinese 
treatment 


Total 


Number 

Per cent 


1237 
50.6 


1209 

49.4 


2446 


370 
*29.91 


477 
*39.45 


847 







* Per cent of deaths among admissions to respective service. 

The extremely high mortality in this hospital shows that 
either the figures cover a period of severe epidemic disease 
or that only extremely ill patients were admitted, for the 
death rate is about ten times that in most hospitals. If this 
is the case, the method of treatment makes much less differ- 
ence than in less critical cases, for here most will die regard- 
less of the care and wisdom of the measures taken. The 
main interest of the figures lies in the fact that in as thor- 
oughly foreignized a city as Hongkong practically as many 
patients choose the old as the new method of treatment. 

Aside from general hospitals, others have been established 
for the treatment of lepers, and two for the insane. Of the 
latter the first and best known is that opened by Dr. Kerr in 
Canton in 1898. The second is a government hospital in 
Peking entirely under Chinese control and in charge of a 
western trained Chinese physician. So far as I am aware, 
there is not a single institution devoted exclusively to the 
treatment of tuberculosis, though that disease is more preva- 
lent in China than in Europe and America. 

Great as has been the work of hospitals and dispensaries 
conducted by foreigners in the diffusion of a knowledge of the 
methods and benefits of western medicine, a greater part 
must be played by the educational institutions that will send 
Chinese men and women out among their own people, prop- 
erly equipped to demonstrate the science and the art of 
heahng. The evolution of medical colleges in China has been 
very similar to that in America. At first men trained 



WESTEENIZING OF CHINESE MEDICAL PRACTICE 213 

abroad held the field. Then they obtained their knowledge 
by what might be termed apprenticeship — reading with and 
assisting a qualified practitioner. Later schools were estab- 
lished, the teachers of which were practicing physicians but 
who gave part of their time to class instruction. Only 
recently in America have there been medical colleges where 
in subjects like physiology, anatomy and pathology, the 
instructors have devoted their time exclusively to teaching. 
All these varieties of medical instruction are found in China 
but very few colleges have come to the stage where a full 
curriculum is offered. The commonest variety of instruc- 
tion is where one or two men, more than busy with the care 
of a hospital and dispensary, take a few students to train 
them as assistants. They lecture to them on anatomy, 
physiology and the other fundamental subjects usually 
translating as they go into colloquial Chinese and probably 
using the English term where the Chinese is lacking or un- 
known. Men trained in this way have the virtues and the 
vices of their teachers. Naturally, they know nothing first 
hand of the fundamental natural sciences on which modern 
medicine is based. Those who are gifted come to take fair 
histories, are good anaesthetists, fair to good operators, 
but usually with faulty technique, and are poor diagnosti- 
cians and prescribers. Their faults are that they do most 
things by imitation, and do not understand the rationale of 
the proceeding. They know that the master gives this 
drug or that mixture under what are apparently the circum- 
stances demanding treatment. They try to learn formulas 
and prescriptions rather than to diagnose by careful observa- 
tion and elimination. In short, they are empyrics, the result 
of didactic instruction. Their vices are the vices of the sys- 
tem or lack of system under which they are trained, and the 
system is the result of the stage of development of education 
in China. 

It is easy to condemn the conditions but America has not 
fully emerged from them herself. Very few schools in China 
can measure up to the American Medical Association's 
definition of a medical college, i.e., an institution having "at 
least six professors giving their entire time to medical work, 



214 CHARLES W. YOUNG 

a graded course of four full years of college grade in medicine 
and requiring for admission not less than the usual four 
years of academic or high school preparation or its equiva- 
lent in addition to pre-academic or grammar school studies." 
None has reached the new standard of the Council on Medi- 
cal Education of the American Medical Association. Several 
are doing fair work and improving more or less rapidly. 
About ten schools established by missionary societies by 
generous stretching of the definition may be called medical 
colleges. Only one of these has a staff of ten or more 
teachers. Being myself a teacher in that one perhaps com- 
parisons may be considered invidious so that I prefer to turn 
to the judgment of others as to the present status of medical 
colleges in China. In the report of Dr. Martin R. Edwards, 
who spied out the land for the location of the Harvard Medi- 
cal School in China, and published last year, he says, "Of 
the schools which have been established by the missionary 
forces, the Union Medical School in Peking gives the great- 
est promise. It has a good foundation in buildings, equip- 
ment and professorial staff. In Shanghai, the St. John's 
University Medical School has been established, but its 
requirement admitting only college men of two years' stand- 
ing has largely limited its work. There is now in Hankow 
a small school struggling along with practically no equip- 
ment as to buildings or men. Hangchow, Soochow, Foo- 
chow, and Canton have similar so-called medical schools, all 
working with an entirely inadequate equipment." The diffi- 
culties are two: First, the preliminary education is inade- 
quate; and second, the staffs and equipment are usually too 
meagre. Both are due to the undeveloped condition of edu- 
cational institutions in China. They are where America 
was two decades or more ago. The China Medical Mis- 
sionary Association composed of the four hundred and more 
medical missionaries has drawn up a policy of medical 
education which it hopes to see carried out. It has recom- 
mended that for the present, missionary medical education 
be concentrated in five centers, one union college in each the 
north, south, east, west and central parts of the country, 
and that the instruction be in Chinese; that is. Mandarin, 



WESTERNIZING OF CHINESE MEDICAL PRACTICE 215 

except in Canton. Practically, this means, Peking, Canton, 
Nanking, Chentu and Hankow. There are such schools 
either in operation or under organization in each of these 
cities except Canton, where a union is not yet consummated. 
The three Wuhan cities (Hankow, Han Yang, Wuchang) 
have a small school conducted by the two societies in Han- 
kow, and another across the river under the American Epis- 
copal Church in Wuchang. This great center has been 
selected by the movement headed by Lord William Cecil 
as the site of the Oxford-Cambridge University scheme. If 
and when this plan materializes, an adequate medical college 
certainly will be a part of it. Aside from these five centers 
designated by the China Medical Missionary Association 
and those mentioned by Dr. Edwards in his report, there is a 
Union Medical College at Chinanfu, Shantung with three 
permanent instructors and two lecturers. There is one at 
Mukden, Manchuria, with five teachers. The only mission- 
ary schools using English as the teaching medium are St. 
John's in Shanghai, which has now affiliated with the Har- 
vard Medical School in China; and the University Medical 
School, affiliated with the Canton Christian College. Aside 
from the colleges mentioned, there are others that may be 
noted. With chracteristic German thoroughness a school 
has been started in Shanghai which gives a preparatory 
course in the German language and in the sciences and then 
a medical course, the whole covering seven years. This is 
part of a campaign to make Germany and the German lan- 
guage greater factors in the Far East than they are at present. 
In Canton the French have a school with three professors. 
Their lectures are interpreted into Chinese — a thoroughly 
unsatisfactory method. Hongkong University, a semi- 
official institution recently organized, will have a good medi- 
cal department. Although it is in British territory, it must 
exert a large influence in South China. The Japanese have 
opened three or four schools in China, but they are purely 
commerical ventures and the less said about them the better. 
All the schools mentioned are for men. There are two mis- 
sionary medical colleges for women. One is in Canton. 
The other, the Union Medical College for Women in Peking, 



216 CHARLES W. YOUNG 

gives a six year course. The curriculum and some of the 
teachers are the same as in the Union Medical College 
(for men), Peking. 

Although they have been referred to indirectly, notice is 
due to the marked interest that several American universi- 
ties have taken in education in China. Yale University 
was the first, and in 1903, opened work in Changsha, Hunan, 
which had been selected as a site. Up to the present, although 
medical work has been conducted under Dr. E. H. Hume 
and Dr. F. C. Yen, the contemplated medical college has not 
yet been organized. The University of Pennsylvania, 
through its Young Men's Christian Association, affihated 
itself with the Canton Christian College and now has three 
men conducting the University Medical School. Prince- 
ton University mans the whole work of the Young Men's 
Christian Association in Peking, but there is no medical 
work. Oxford and Cambridge Universities in England plan 
to start a University at Hankow or one of the other Wuhan 
cities. In this they have sought American cooperation. A 
medical college would be part of the scheme. The last and 
largest project to enter the field is Harvard University, which 
has now seven men in Shanghai. The medical department 
of St. John's University has been amalgamated with the 
Harvard Medical School in China. It plans to teach in 
English and to conduct a medical college, a training school 
for municipal health officers for China, a research labora- 
tory, and post-graduate courses for foreign physicians — 
an ambitious program. Only a few of the institutions men- 
tioned confer degrees. St. John's University is incorpor- 
ated in the United States and consequently its degrees are 
foreign. The same is true of a few others. This is a part 
of extraterritoriahty and while some new institutions contem- 
plate following the same course it is, I believe, a wrong posi- 
tion and one that will be untenable within a few years when 
extraterritoriality of other varieties has disappeared. Only 
one school, the Union Medical College in Peking enjoys 
the recognition of the Chinese government, that is its gradu- 
ates receive certificates from the board of education. By a 
change of policy of the republican government, the diplomas 



WESTERNIZING OF CHINESE MEDICAL PRACTICE 217 

issued by the college itself will receive the stamp of the board 
of education in the future. 

This fairly covers what has been done for China. What 
has China done for herself? Very little as yet. The pro- 
gram laid down by the imperial edict of 1909 contemplated 
a hospital and medical school in every provincial capital as 
well as a medical department in the Imperial University in 
Peking. This, like many other paper reforms of the Man- 
chu government, was never carried out. Practically the 
only medical education conducted by the government are 
the two colleges in Tientsin — the Pei Yang Medical College 
and the Army Medical College. The first is taught by three 
or four French physicians and about an equal number of 
Chinese graduates of the school. The medium of instruc- 
tion is English. The second formerly had Japanese instruc- 
tors, whose lectures in their own language were interpreted 
into Chinese. The textbooks were those used in Japan,, i.e., 
written in the slightly modified Chinese classical language. 
Having dismissed the Japanese staff, the Army Medical 
College is about to use English as its teaching language. 
These schools train the surgeons for the army and navy, 
but some of their graduates, especially of the first and older 
institutions are now in civil and non-medical official posi- 
tions. 

This brings us to a consideration of the language medium 
in teaching western medicine in China. It is a question 
in which there is no unanimity. Strangely the China Med- 
ical Missionary Association representing foreigners, favors 
Chinese colloquial for the conversational parts of the instruc- 
tion and the easy classical style for text books; while the 
Chinese government has decreed that all science, including 
medicine shall be taught in English. The board of edu- 
cation has been forced into this position by two factors, the 
lack of teachers and the lack of technical terms in the Chinese 
language. The instructors in the sciences as well as in many 
of the other higher branches in the government colleges and 
universities are foreigners especially English and Ameri- 
cans. They go out under a three-year contract, so that 
learning to teach in Chinese is out of the question. English 



218 CHARLES W. YOUNG 

is the foreign language of the Orient and it is fast becoming 
true that no man can consider himself educated unless he 
knows something of it. The second factor, the matter of 
technical terms is also difficult. There has been a desultory 
work on the compilation of technical terms, but it has not 
reached the natural sciences and may not for a long time. 
By the rules of the Chinese language, it is improper to 
create new characters, i.e., to coin new words. It would 
be equivalent to making new words in a modern language 
without going to the dead languages for the roots. What 
must be done is to combine existing characters so as to give 
the requisite meaning, where a single ideograph does not 
suffice to express the thought. Thus one is confined to a 
choice of say forty thousand characters with their meanings 
which originated when the world was comparatively primi- 
tive, together with combinations of the same. The difficulty 
is that what would correspond to a polysyllabic word with 
us becomes a string of characters a definition in fact, ex- 
pressed in what must be lucid Chinese. The result is some- 
times weird. A short cut but worse expedient is the trans- 
literation of the sound of the foreign word. Here the trouble 
is that beside having absolutely no meaning to the uninitiated 
the sound values of different characters vary in different 
parts of the country and what might be a fair imitation in 
one place would have little resemblance in another. In 
spite of what we may say about the difficulties, the modern 
writers on every subject under the sun go on coining new 
terms (not new characters) and many of them are very pat. 
The same will be done in medicine in time. It should be 
undertaken by a government conunission if suitable men can 
be found. It is a very difficult task if well done, for it com- 
bines an extensive knowledge of Chinese characters, a thor- 
ough technical knowledge of the science whose terms are 
translated, e.g., medicine, and that masterly quafity which 
uses just the right word to express each shade of meaning. 
Perhaps the men can be found now; perhaps we shall have to 
wait a few years. The Japanese met the same difficulties 
and solved them as far as they have been solved, as the Chi- 
nese are doing. They began by teaching technical subjects 



WESTERNIZING OE CHINESE MEDICAL PRACTICE 219 

in the language of the country which they took as their model 
in that particular branch. Medicine fell to German and I 
understand that even yet some of the most technical parts 
of medicine are studied in that language. The Japanese 
use the Chinese classical language, having derived it with 
much of their culture from China many centuries ago. It 
might be asked why the Chinese do not use the Japanese 
terms or even the Japanese textbooks. The answer is that 
the Japanese use many characters in other senses than the 
Chinese do, so that the meaning is not clear; they use many 
unusual characters; and their whole literary style is not 
pleasing or shall we say correct, from the Chinese standpoint. 
Moreover, they have used many transliterations of the 
sounds of foreign terms, accurate perhaps when pronounced 
in Japanese, but meaningless when given the Chinese sounds. 
And moreover, the Chinese sound values, as I have pointed 
out, are not the same everywhere. The China Medical 
Missionary Association and those who agree with their view- 
point, that a great country like China ultimately must 
study and write about every subject, technical or otherwise, 
in their own language, have taken the bull by the horns and 
have compiled an English-Chinese Medical Lexicon, cover- 
ing the commoner medical terms and will add to it as new 
editions appear. It has some faults. Some terms are 
poor. Some rules of Chinese composition occasionally are 
broken, but it is a step in the right direction. It will be 
tried by fire and the good will remain. 

And this brings us to the subject of modern medical hter- 
ature in the Chinese language. It is not a large subject, 
more's the pity. I have noted the abortive attempt of a 
Jesuit father to translate an anatomy, and the more fruit- 
ful labors of Dr. Hobson in Canton. Dr. Kerr, of Canton, 
wrote several treatises, as did several others, but it is since 
1900 that most has been done. The works now translated 
and published by the pubhcation committee of the China 
Medical Missionary Association comprise twenty-three 
titles, including most but not all of the fundamental branches 
of medicine. Other books are in the press and still others 
are being translated. Within a few years when China 



220 CHARLES W. YOUNG 

has men of her own thoroughly trained in medicine and in 
in the other sciences, the Chinese language will be employed 
in the government colleges. Of that there can be no doubt. 
At present is is a question of whether it is better to make the 
student do the work of getting sufficient English to grasp 
the technicalities of medicine, and after he has obtained the 
training, be unable to transmit what he has learned to his 
countrymen who do not understand English, because he 
has no technical terms; or, to make the teacher learn Chinese 
and create a literature in medicine with the help, of course, 
of Chinese teachers, who see that the style is correct. In 
our own college we require the students to have some knowl- 
edge of English and to continue the study of both that and 
classical Chinese throughout their course unless excused for 
special proficiency. The aim is to make EngUsh a second- 
ary language as students in this country have German and 
French for collateral reading and I believe that we are antici- 
pating the condition that will prevail in nearly all schools a 
few years hence, when those who wish to study in a foreign 
language will seek also the greater facilities of some foreign 
land. 

For more than fifty years Chinese have been going to the 
West for medical training. So far as I can find any record 
the first to take a degree was Dr. Wang Fen, who graduated 
at Edinborough in 1857. He offered his services to the 
London Missionary Society and was in charge of the hospital 
of the Medical Missionary Society in Canton for a number 
of years. Since then a number of Chinese have studied 
both in Europe and America. With the great influx of Chi- 
nese students since 1900 and especially since the migrations 
to America that have resulted from the return of the Boxer 
indemnity by the United States, the number has increased. 
At the present time the bureau supervising students has a 
record of seven now studjdng medicine, two sanitary engi- 
neering and one sanitary chemistry. 

Finally, where does western medicine stand today in the 
estimate of the Chinese? That depends on the precise 
moment at which you speak. The change that is going on 
in China at present is stupendous. It is safe to say that the 



WESTERNIZING OF CHINESE MEDICAL PRACTICE 221 

officials and upper classes have come into close contact with 
western ideas and culture more in the last decade than in the 
preceding century and that the last year has meant more in 
progress than the preceding ten. It is needless to say that 
if the Chinese government had known a tithe of what it does 
now, the Boxer delusion would have been impossible. There 
are still old officials who did not learn anything from that 
convulsion but are wondering what all the recent fuss is 
about. There are others who are revising their opinions. 
Let me quote from the address of Hsi Liang, viceroy of Man- 
churia at the opening of the International Plague Confer- 
ence in Mukden in April, 1911: 

We Chinese have for a long time believed in an ancient system of 
medical practice, which the experience of centuries has found to be 
serviceable for many ailments, but the lessons taught by this epi- 
demic, which unti] three or four months ago had been unknown in 
China, have been great, and have compelled several of us to revise 
our former ideas of this valuable branch of knowledge. We feel 
that the progress of medical science must go hand in hand with 
the advancement of learning, and that if railways, telegraphs, 
electric light and other modern inventions are indispensable to the 
material Vv^elfare of this country, we should also make use of the 
wonderful resources of western medicine for the benefit of the 
people I trust and believe too, that modern medi- 
cine and especially sanitary science will in future receive more 
attention in this country than it has hitherto done, and we shall be 
better prepared to deal with similar epidemics when they arise. 
My great regret is that as many as 40,000 lives have been lost in 
these Provinces, especially including those of some of our foreign 
doctors, whose unselfish devotion to duty and the welfare of our 
people I shall always remember. 

At the first graduation exercises of the Union Medical 
College in Peking in April 1911, the Privy Councillor Na 
T'ung gave the principal address. He said in part : 

There is abundant proof that neglect of the laws of sanitation 
and absence of proper medical care have brought about more 
deaths of officers and men in the fiercest of modern warfare than 
the destructive power of the terrible weapons of war. What is 
true in times of war is no less true in the times of peace. We have 
just had an illustration in the pneumonic plague which raged so 

fiercely in Manchuria In fighting against the plague 

— and the battle was a splendid one — the government found that 
it did not have a sufficient number of doctors available to do the 



222 CHARLES W. YOUNG 

work and a call for volunteers was issued. Among others, several 
professors and students of your college responded and at once left 
for Harbin, where the plague was seen in its worst form. Leaving 
self and family out of consideration, they thought only of the good 
they could do, and as doctors they remembered that their duty 
and ambition was to fight disease and death: And it is this 
spirit, I believe, should inspire you throughout your lives, the spirit 
of service and sacrifice. 

Within the year 1911, the Chinese government twice 
sought the cooperation of the Union Medical College in 
Peking when their own resources were insufficient. The 
first was in the case of the epidemic in pneumonic plague 
in Manchuria referred to by Na T'ung and the second was 
during the revolution. The imperial army medical corps 
was altogether inadequate for the task and desired the Medi- 
cal College to cooperate. The reply was in the affirmative 
provided a Red Cross Society could be organized and that 
the imperial government would apply the rules of the Geneva 
Convention to the treatment of wounded rebels. It took 
a month of the time of the most active hostilities before they 
could be persuaded to do so, but in the end these civilized 
rules prevailed and three companies with nine teachers and 
about forty students went to the front. Aside from this 
and the efforts of other Red Cross Societies in China where- 
ever there were medical missionaries their hospitals if re- 
quired were filled with wounded. On the rebel side there 
was little army medical corps work but several organiza- 
tions including the Red Cross Society in Shanghai sent com- 
panies to the scene of hostilities. The public service during 
these two visitations of pestilence and war has aided greatly 
in showing the officials in China what western medicine is 
by actual demonstration. After the plague one heard on 
every side among officials of the necessity of reform in medi- 
cal education and in supervision of public health. There is 
no question but that the new government will move rapidly 
in this direction and that the institutions now at work and 
many others will be needed to cooperate with those that the 
government will establish to train physicians and public 
health officers for new China. 



THE OPIUM ABOLITION QUESTION 

By J. 0. P. Bland, formerly of the Imperial Maritime Cus- 
toms, Secretary to the Shanghai Municipality 
and ''Times" Correspondent in China 

I am deeply sensible, ladies and gentlemen, of the honor 
conferred and of my privilege in addressing so distinguished 
and representative an audience. I am also sensible of the 
fact that the opinions which I am about to lay before you in 
connection with the opium question in China are very differ- 
ent, on the whole, from those which you are accustomed 
to hear and to hold. The subject of opium production and 
smoking in China is one which many writers have discovered 
to be of an extremely difficult and thorny nature. Mr. H. B. 
Morse, an American who for many years served the Chinese 
government loyally and well, writing on this subject observes 
that he who tries to investigate the facts with no predisposi- 
tion to either side is likely to find himself branded as a 
trimmer by the one party and a Laodicean by the other, with 
no opportunity to defend himself. 

In bringing before you the present aspect of the opium 
question and the views and opinions which I and many other 
observers hold on this subject, I would ask you to believe 
that I am actuated by a feeling of sincere sympathy and 
regard for the Chinese people and that the views which I 
hold are entirely sincere, even where they differ from those 
advanced by the missionary bodies, the anti-opium societies 
and many earnest Chinese reformers in China. I am awaie 
that one runs the risk of being misjudged in this matter, but 
it is a risk which must be faced by those who sincerely believe 
that the proceedings of the anti-opium societies, initiated 
with the very best of motives, are likely in the long run to 
aggravate the evil of opium smoking in China, even after the 
Indian trade has been completely abohshed, and to a certain 
extent because of the abolition of that trade. 

223 



224 J. O. p. BLAND 

Speaking for myself and for many other observers whose 
opinions are based as much upon the pohtical, economic and 
social aspects of the question as upon its high moral grounds, 
it seems to me a matter for sincere congratulation that 
Great Britain has assented to the abolition of the Indian 
trade, a traffic in itself highly demoralizing to the Chinese 
and therefore discreditable to Great Britain. Having said 
this much, however, it seems to me necessary that we should 
recognize the fact that the practical issues of the question 
of opium abolition as a whole have been very frequently 
confused by too general an acceptance of certain postulates 
loudly proclaimed upon high moral grounds. It seems to 
me that many of the philanthropists, missionaries and emi- 
nent divines who have taken a prominent part in the anti- 
opium movement are afflicted in their field of morals by the 
same persistent delusion as that which commonly afflicts re- 
formers in the field of political economics. ''They are all 
pervaded," as Spencer says, "by the conviction, now defi- 
nitely expressed and now taken as a self evident truth, 
that there needs but this kind of instruction or that kind 
of discipline, this mode of repression or that system of cul- 
ture, to bring society into a very much better state. " Misled 
by laudable enthusiasms, bhnded by benevolent hypotheses, 
it is a characteristic of the advocates of this good cause, that 
they are generally predisposed to ignore or to misinterpret 
those facts of the situation which mihtate against their own 
conclusions. Influenced by these enthusiasms, they fail to 
take into account, not only the structural character of the 
Chinese race in particular, but the inherent weaknesses of 
humanity in general. 

If we turn to the history of the agitation against the 
Indian opium trade, we find that amongst the arguments 
most frequently advanced, two have been most persistent; 
first, the argument that Great Britain has forced the Indian 
trade upon China at the cannon's mouth, and secondly, that 
the recent anti-opium legislation introduced by the Chinese 
government opens up a new and particularly promising 
vision of reform. As regards the first of these two, the fal- 
lacy of the cannon's mouth line of argument has been so 



THE OPIUM ABOLITION QUESTION 225 

frequently demonstrated by unbiased and competent writers 
that the facts are easily available. Nevertheless, it con- 
tinues to figure prominently in all the activities of the anti-r 
opium societies and is apparently not to be upset by any re- 
iteration of historical fact. To give only one recent instance, 
let me quote to you from a work published a month ago. 
Men and Manners of Modern China by Dr. Macgowan. 

Seventy years ago [he says] a great western power forced on 
China an opium treaty at the mouth of the cannon. Since then 
not a dead hand but a mailed fist has been held up threateningly 
to prevent its being evaded. Her merchants have carried on the 
opium traffic and her warships have patrolled the eastern seas, 
to see that they are not defrauded of their rights. 

The years dragged slowly on for China, and during these opium 
was slowly weaving its web over the land, and its black fingers 
were fastening themselves round the hearts of countless thousands, 
and homes were being desolated by a curse which the government 
might never try to remove, for the iron fist was always on guard. 

And then the great miracle took place. The passion that had 
been burning in the hearts of the best men in the country blazed 
forth with a mighty fire. The conqueror was appealed to some 
five years ago or so, and slowly the mailed arm was dropped. 

The effect of well-meant but wholly inaccurate statements 
of this sort has been clearly reflected in the attitude of many 
Chinese promoters of the anti-opium movement and has 
resulted in diverting the attention of many from the real 
and vital issues of that question to the actually subordi- 
nate question of the Indian trade. This attitude of the 
Chinese was most remarkably demonstrated at the Hague 
Conference which took place at the close of last year. I was 
present, on behalf of the London Times, on that occasion 
and was struck by the fact that, although at this time the 
cultivation of the poppy was being rapidly reintroduced into 
many provinces in China, the attitude of the Chinese dele- 
gates was one of virtuous condescension and high moral 
superiority, so much so, that they were brought to book and 
rebuked on more than one occasion. At the end of 1910 
when, as a result of a wave of public enthusiasm and con- 
certed efforts, sincerely backed by the Manchu government, 
opium cultivation had been reduced by something approxi- 
mating to twenty-five per cent of the area under poppy, the 



226 J. O. p. BLAND 

adoption by the Chinese delegates of an attitude of moral 
superiority might have been condoned; but in 1911, with 
cultivation again in full swing it was certainly indefensible. 
The complete abolition line of argument, like the cannon's 
mouth theory, is based upon fallacies and on untruths easily 
disprovable. To refute the cannon's mouth legend, for 
instance, I may observe that amongst the events which led 
up to the treaty of Nanking in 1842, opium was only one 
factor and that the question settled by that treaty was not 
the question of the importation of opium (or other goods) 
at Canton, but the right of foreign envoys to treat directly 
with the Chinese government. 

But be this as it may, the Indian opium trade may now 
be regarded as dead, England's present attitude in the 
matter amounting to recognition of the fact that the game 
is not worth the scandal, and that the abolition of a trade 
in which only a limited number of British merchants and 
bankers and a few millions of Indian agriculturists are con- 
cerned, will be politically and economically to the advantage 
of the British Empire, quite apart from all moral consider- 
ations. Economically, the substitution of grain cultivation 
for opium in India must in the end be productive of good, 
for the enormous increase of population in that country is 
already producing serious social and economic difficulties and 
it must be obvious that every field taken from opium and 
given to the production of grain will eventually afford a 
measure of relief to the pressing problem of the world's 
food supply. On the other hand, however, it must be evi- 
dent that, now that as China resumes the cultivation of 
opium upon a large scale, the difficulties of the food sup- 
ply problem in China are Ukely to be aggravated in the near 
future. 

In order to gauge the future action of the Chinese Govern- 
ment and its people in regard to this question of opium, it 
is necessary before all to consider the question of the perma- 
nent sincerity of the governing class. At the Shang-Hai 
Conference in 1909, it was recorded as the unanimous 
opinion of the International delegates that they believed in 
the "unswerving sincerity" of the Chinese government. 



THE OPIUM ABOLITION QUESTION 227 

The practicability of abolishing, not only the importation 
of the foreign drug, but the cultivation of all native opium, 
was from the first a question entirely dependent upon this 
matter of sincerity. By the opium edicts of 1906, drastic 
measures were introduced which, in the opinion of many 
observers on the spot, were construed as evidence of new and 
sincere intentions on the part of the Chinese government. 
Nevertheless, the whole history and record of that govern- 
ment precludes belief in the sincerity of the movement and 
on the other hand, contains evidence of a persistent and 
deliberate intention on the part of the mandarin class (as 
distinct from the earnest reformers) to take advantage of 
the enthusiastic pubUc opinion amongst the Chinese and of 
the sympathy of foreign nations, to evolve, for its own ulti- 
mate benefit, a system of monopolies in the native trade, 
coincident with the aboUtion of the importation of Indian 
opium. That this has been the traditional policy of the 
Chinese government really requires but little proof; but I 
may cite as one remarkable piece of evidence the opinion 
recorded as far back as 1875, by Johannes von Gumpach. 
He wrote: 

If the British government were to listen to the Tsungli Yamen's 
insidious arguments, supported though they be by ill-directed 
missionary zeal, and yield to the Yamen's intimidations by con- 
senting to the prohibition of poppy culture in India, it would after 
all only sacrifice the legitimate interests of British commerce and 
the Indian industry and to what end? To the end that the govern- 
ment of China might, under the shading mask of its impotence, 
encourage the cultivation of the poppy at home; stealthily and grad- 
ually add to its salt monopoly that of the manufacture and sale of 
opium, and impose upon the people a deleterious drug, while ex- 
cluding from the country a superior preparation. 

If we turn now to the attitude of Young China toward 
the opium question, we find in the opinion of most ob- 
servers and notably of the missionary bodies, between the 
years 1907 and 1910, a general consensus of opinion that a 
new spirit had been created, bringing with it the sure promise 
of better things and good hopes of the complete eradication 
of opium smoking throughout the country. Many observers 
on the spot, while accepting the opium edicts as evidence of 



228 J. O. p. BLAND 

sincerity, still retained doubts as to the practicability of the 
measures proposed by the edicts of 1906. I myself was at 
Peking at that time and in frequent communication with 
Tang Shao-yi, the initiator of the opium abolition edicts and 
the most prominent of all the reformers. I shared with 
others the belief in the sincerity of the originators of this 
movement at the beginning, but as time went on, I was 
reluctantly compelled to modify my faith in that sincerity 
by reason of the indisputable evidence of certain facts which 
came to my own knowledge. For instance, one of the regu- 
lations by which the abolition of opium was to be secured 
within a period of ten years was that which prohibited the 
sale of any anti-opium remedies containing forms of opium, 
such as morphia pills. The manufacture and sale of pills, 
containing opium in any form was forbidden under strict 
penalties; this measure was obviously necessary if the aboli- 
tion of the opium pipe was not to be replaced by something 
infinitely worse. At the beginning of 1907, it came to the 
knowledge of several observers of the movement in Peking 
and especially of the British Legation, which was naturally 
following the results of the edicts with great interest, that a 
large number of brands of so-called anti-opium pills was be- 
ing manufactured and sold . Amon gst them were many which 
after being analyzed in London, were found to contain a very 
large percentage of morphia. One pill was being sold at 
Peking and Tientsin under Government auspices; it was 
manufactured upon the prescription of a foreign-educated 
Chinese doctor, a Cantonese, nearly related by marriage to 
Mr. Tang Shao-yi. Upon ascertaining the facts, I called upon 
Mr. Tang and pointed out the foredoomed futility of opium 
regulations which could be violated in this way and the very 
bad impression which must be created by the fact that a 
person so closely related to himself should thus be making 
profit out of the illegal sale of these dangerous pills. No 
action was taken in the matter however and to this day the 
sale of anti-opium pills containing morphia continues practi- 
cally unchecked in most parts of China, and the illicit morphia 
trade brings large profits to British manufacturers of the 
drug. A second disquieting incident occurred when the 



THE OPIUM ABOLITION QUESTION 229 

American government, actuated by a laudable desire to 
assist the Chinese in their work of opium aboHtion, gave 
encouragement and letters of introduction to the Chinese 
authorities to an expert in the cure of drug habitues, Mr. 
C. B. Towns of New York. Mr. Towns came to Peking and 
asked to be allowed to cure Chinese opium smokers by a 
process of his own which he guaranteed to be effective within 
a reasonably short period of time. In order to test by 
practical experiments the nature and results of his treat- 
ment, I arranged, in consultation with the doctor of the 
British Legation to watch the cure in the case of a dozen 
confirmed opium smokers who would submit to the test. 
These men, all personally known to me, were treated for four 
days by the Towns method and after it they were certainly 
cured for the time being of any desire to smoke opium. For 
six months afterwards, during which time their movements 
were watched, they still remained free from the vice. Never- 
theless, in spite of these and other successful experiments 
with private individual Chinese, no attempt was made to 
encourage the introduction of Mr. Towns's treatment on 
any wide scale and as a matter of fact, his own repeated 
attempts to secure premises for a hospital in Tien-Tsin city 
were blocked by the opposition of local Chinese officials. I 
mention these two cases as evidence of the traditional 
Mandarin attitude, many more instances of which might be 
cited, which effectively preclude any robust faith in the 
sincerity of the leaders of Young China in the national anti- 
opium movement. 

The three years of experiment and test which, under the 
British opium agreement of 1907, were to demonstrate the 
sincerity and the abihty of the Chinese government in the 
matter of opium abolition resulted, as I have said, in a reduc- 
tion of about 25 per cent in the total cultivation of the poppy 
throughout the provinces. This result was very largely due 
to the fact that the Manchu government, regarding opium 
aboUtion as one of the things upon which Young China was 
keenly determined, and fearing to increase the unrest and 
disloyalty of the southern provinces, lent the whole weight 
of its authority to the movement for suppressing poppy cul- 



230 J. O. p. BLAND 

tivation. Sir Alexander Hosie, reporting to the British 
government on the progress made in the suppression of 
cultivation in the various provinces, stated that the farmers 
themselves had accepted serious losses and given up planting 
the poppy for three causes. First, belief in the sincerity of 
the government intentions. This took some time to estab- 
lish, but in 1910, it was widespread. Second, local influence 
of the literati and gentry, exercised in support of the govern- 
ment's programme. Third, the popular recognition of the 
social and economic evils arising from the opium habit. 
There is no doubt that the good will shown by the Manchu 
government in this matter was of very powerful assistance 
to the cause which the opium reformers had at heart, and 
that, without it, the expression of pubUc opinion could not 
have produced any such good results as were actually 
attained in the summer of 1910. At this stage, however, 
Young China, carried away by its own enthusiasms and by 
its impatience to achieve still more rapid results, began to 
agitate for the complete abolition of the Indian trade as the 
most important thing to be secured. At the same time, it 
took the question out of the plane of philanthropy and moral- 
ity into that of politics. The manner in which the question 
was discussed by the provincial assemblies afforded con- 
spicuous proof of the change which had taken place. The 
violent agitation which was commenced in England and in 
China at this date for the immediate abolition of the Indian 
trade, eventually led the British government to agree to 
the convention which was concluded in Peking in May, 1911. 
By virtue of this new treaty, a heavy additional duty was 
placed upon the Indian drug and it was at the same time 
agreed, that any province in China which was able to show a 
"clean slate," that is to say, to prove that it had completely 
abolished opium cultivation within its own borders, should, 
ipso facto, be entitled to exclude all further importations of 
the Indian drug. By this eminently fair arrangement, it 
was left for each province to make good its own pledges and 
to give immediate effect to the reforms for which they pro- 
fessed to be anxious. Nevertheless, at this time, while the 
Cantonese were agitating in all parts of the country and 



THE OPIUM ABOLITION QUESTION 231 

denouncing the British government for "forcing Indian 
opium upon China," the lamentable fact was becoming 
apparent that, in those very provinces where Young China 
had been most active in its propaganda, the treaty with 
Great Britain was being violated and native opium was being 
cultivated for the pecuniary benefit of the local officials. 
At the present day, whilst the leaders of the republic, Sun 
Yat Sen and Li Yuan Hung, continue to press for the abro- 
gation of the treaty of May, 1911, and to demand that no 
more shipments of Indian opium shall henceforth be made, 
they remain curiously indifferent to the fact that the culti- 
vation of native opium has been resumed on an unprece- 
dentedly large scale. Even in those provinces of Shensi and 
Szechuen which in 1910 had been reported clear of opium 
cultivation, it is now unfortunately true that the poppy is 
grown in large quantities. More than this, there is every 
evidence of a widespread intention in many provinces to 
establish official monopolies for the control of the trade in 
Chinese opium. The province of Chekiang, for instance, 
which has for sometime past been illegally and arbitrarily 
prohibiting all movements of Indian opium within its borders 
on grounds of high morality, and appealing to the moral 
dignity and conscience of Great Britain to support it in this 
line of action, has, at the same time, gathered a large harvest 
of opium, cultivated up to the very walls of the pref ectual 
city. In the provinces of Canton, Yunnan and Kiangsi, 
the republican authorities have officially organized local 
monopolies for the control and sale of Chinese opium. 

The effect on trade and politics of the violation of treaties, 
such as have recently been manifested by the republican 
authorities in several provinces, cannot fail to create an 
exceedingly bad impression abroad and thus to place further 
obstacles in the way of the progress and prosperity of the 
Chinese people. If we consider only the disorganization 
of trade and finances which must arise from the illegal 
restrictions placed by the Shanghai and Chekiang officials on 
the importation of Indian opium, it is evident that, where a 
cargo to the value of about six millions sterling is arbitrarily 
held up and prevented from entering into consumption, the 



232 J. O. p. BLAND 

consequences cannot be negligible, for the Indian opium 
trade, like other branches of commerce in the Far East, is 
conducted on credit handled by native and foreign banks, 
and any disorganization of that credit must inevitably react 
far and wide, to the general disturbance of the economic 
situation and to the detriment of the country's future trade. 

Looking at the question from another point of view: that 
is to say, considering it in its political aspect, the cessation 
of the Indian opium trade, unaccompanied by cessation of 
the production of the native drug, must tend to increase and 
accelerate the movement, already marked throughout China, 
towards provincial autonomy. The Import duties hereto- 
fore levied on the Indian drug formed an important item 
in the central government's budget of revenue. These will 
now be cut off, and on the other hand the provinces, under 
their local monopolies, will collect large sums at the disposal 
of the local bureaus for provincial purposes. That is to 
say, at a time when all British and American opinion concurs 
in the urgent necessity for the creation and maintenance of a 
strong central government, the results of the anti-opium 
movement, as at present indicated, will aid in placing in- 
creased revenues at the disposal of the provinces and reduce 
Peking's control over what were national funds. 

Finally, the Chinese government's real or professed 
inability to control the provinces, as regards observance of 
the British treaty of May, 1911, cannot fail to produce results 
seriously prejudicial to China's credit abroad and ultimately 
to her borrowing capacity; for, as has been pointed out by 
competent critics, if China cannot prevent the maritime 
province of Chekiang from defying the law and from violat- 
ing the central government's obligations under the treaty 
referred to, it is not likely that the government will be able 
hereafter to exercise that control of Lekin or supervision of 
the salt gabelle, which it is understood, are to form the col- 
lateral security of future loans. 

If we turn now to a brief consideration of the moral 
aspect of the opium smoking question, it is impossible to 
avoid introducing the commonplace comparison or analogy 
between the smoking of opium by the Chinese and the con- 



THE OPIUM ABOLITION QUESTION 233 

sumption of alcohol in European countries. The uses and 
abuses of opium are undoubtedly very similar in their 
causes and effects to those with which we are familiar in 
the case of alcoholic drinks. That the excessive use of 
opium is a vicious and degrading habit, none will deny but 
the actual facts are that the Chinaman's tendency to consume 
opium in excess have been very widely exaggerated and 
generally distorted. Examining the facts in the light of such 
dispassionate and methodical inquiry as is available, we find, 
in the report of the Straits Settlements Opium Commission 
of 1907-08, evidence of a very detailed kind which appear 
to afford ample justification for that Commission's conclusion 
that "The opium habit is comparable to the European's 
use of alcohol and tobacco and that it must be regarded as 
the expression among the Chinese of the universal tendency 
to some form of indulgence." In other words, if we accept 
this conclusion even in a limited sense and with mental 
reservations, it seems to me an imperative and inevitable 
conclusion, from all European experience, that a reasonable 
recognition of the limitations of human nature and human 
weaknesses will be more conducive in the long run to the 
ends of public moraUty, than the attempt to give effect to 
the impossible idea of complete abolition of opium cultiva- 
tion or any other doctrine of the extremists. 

The Straits Settlements report, above referred to, embod- 
ies a systematic attempt to render a complete and impartial 
account of the question of opium smoking, and its conclu- 
sions emphasize the important fact, which the anti-opium 
societies have generally ignored, that the vast majority of 
Chinese opium smokers are habitually moderate consumers. 
Says this report: 

The evils arising from the use of opium, were made the subject 
of specific inquiry from nearly every witness, and medical wit- 
nesses were practically unanimous, with the exception of those 
who held views strongly opposed to opium, that opium smoking 
in moderation was relatively harmless. Even if carried to excess, 
no organic change in the body could be detected, the results being 
chiefly functional evils. It was also found, as would be the case 
with alcohol, impossible to lay down a standard consumption which 
could be regarded as use in moderation or use in excess, owing to 
the varying physiques and constitutions of smokers. 



234 J. O. p. BLAND 

Reporting to the House of Commons in the year 1872, 
the opinion of a large number of medical men was recorded : 
"That there is a certain aptitude in the stimulant of opium 
to the circumstances of the Chinese people, and that the 
universal use of the opium pipe among the Chinese must 
certainly be owing to some peculiarity of their mental and 
nervous constitution." That this weakness, or form of in- 
dulgence, is peculiarly indicated by the physical and nerv- 
ous systems of the Chinese race is proved by the fact that 
the Thibetan, Mohammedan and Mongolian inhabitants of 
Kan Suh and other centers of opium cultivation are practi- 
cally immune. 

The tendency to smoke opium which the Chinaman car- 
ries about with him to all parts of the world, is logically 
and naturally comparable with the Anglo-Saxon's tendency 
or predilection towards alcohohc strimulants. The compari- 
son is a commonplace one, I admit, and two blacks do not 
make a white, but many years ago a dispassionate and 
thoroughly competent observer of the opium question, Mr. 
Meadows, observed that, "Although the substances are 
different, I can see no difference at all as to the morality of 
producing, selhng and consuming them, while the only differ- 
ence I can observe in the consequences of consumption is, 
that the opium smoker is not so violent, so maudlin or so 
disgusting as the drunkard." 

The opium problem appears to reduce itself naturally 
under three heads. First: Is opium necessary to the Chi- 
nese, as alcohol is to the European? On this point the evi- 
dence of the Straits Settlements Opium Commission appears 
to be conclusive, and there can be no doubt that so long as 
opium continues to be produced and available, either by 
legitimate trade or by smuggling, the Chinese people will 
continue to smoke it. 

Second: Is the total abolition of opium smoking and opium 
cultivation possible? In the Straits Settlements report it 
was recorded as a generally recognized truth that "Without 
an international agreement to stop the growth of the poppy, 
the success of any prohibitive legislation would be highly 
problematical." At the International Conference held at 



THE OPIUM ABOLITION QUESTION 235 

The Hague last January, the resolutions dealing with the 
abolition of the opium traffic were passed upon the tacit 
assumption that China would continue to justify Europe's 
faith in her "unswerving sincerity," and in her ability to 
put down opium cultivation; but it was unanimously ad- 
mitted and agreed that the idea of any international agree- 
ment or legislation, to control and prevent the cultivation 
of the poppy throughout the world, was utterly impracti- 
cable and visionary. Even the measures proposed by the 
American delegates for the control of the movement and 
sale of opium, and the British suggestions for the control 
of the trade in morphine, cocaine and other drugs by means 
of an international agreement and pharmacy laws, were 
regarded by the majority of the delegates as counsels of 
perfection, Utopian schemes, suitable for presentation at 
The Hague but unattainable in practice. As regards any 
idea of an international self-denying ordinance to remedy the 
production of the poppy, Turkey, one of the chief producers, 
declined even to be represented at the Conference, and the 
attitude of other powers left no doubt as to the futility of the 
suggestion. But even assuming, for purposes of argument, 
that the total abolition of opium cultivation were possible, 
there remains the third aspect of the problem, i.e., once 
opium smoking has been eradicated, by what means would 
it be possible to prevent a rapid increase of the more danger- 
ous morphia habit and the adoption of alcohol as a form of 
stimulant by the Chinese people? Personally, I consider 
that all the evidence goes to show that a predisposition to 
opium in one form or another is indicated by the physical 
and nervous constitution of the Chinese as a race, and I 
am not therefore inclined to attach great importance to the 
opinions of those who, hke Sir Frank Swettenham, think that 
alcohol is likely to take the place of opium wherever opium 
is unobtainable. But the dangers arising from morphine as 
a substitute for opium are sufficiently real and immediate 
to have engaged the serious attention of philanthropists 
and medical missionaries in China and abroad. They 
formed the subject of special resolutions at The Hague Con- 
ference and a vast amount of interesting information was 



236 J. O. p. BLAND 

submitted and recorded on the subject. Without going 
into details it may be said that, since the morphia duty was 
increased in China after 1906, the smuggUng of this dangerous 
drug has increased by leaps and bounds, and doctors all over 
China now testify that many opium-smokers have taken to 
morphia, making the last state worse than the first. China 
proposed to regulate the morphine trade by the inauguration 
of pharmacy laws applicable throughout the Empire under 
oflBcial supervision, but I need hardly say that for many 
years to come, this proposal, like that of the abolition of 
opium cultivation, must remain an unattainable ideal. No 
such laws could possibly be framed or enforced under existing 
conditions. 

To sum up : The futility of legislation and of philanthropic 
attempts to attain the complete abolition of opium cultiva- 
tion and opium smoking in China must be obvious to every 
unbiased observer of the facts. Nevertheless, I hold that if, 
instead of discussing unpractical schemes, the activities of 
philanthropists and missionaries could henceforth be directed 
towards the introduction of practical restrictive legislation 
and regulation of the opium traffic, much good might be done 
in China, just as in Great Britain education, philanthropy 
and the moral effect of the temperance movement have 
greatly reduced the national tendency to drunkenness 
within the last half century. There undoubtedly exists in 
China a strong force of public opinion directed against the 
excessive use of opium. 

By practical legislation, such as that which in Scandinavia 
has been adopted with such excellent results under the 
Gothenburg system, and by means of the education of public 
opinion, progress can and will no doubt be made. But there 
can be no permanently beneficial results from impulsive 
and Quixotic attempts to secure the root and branch elimi- 
nation of a firmly established national propensity. 



AMERICA'S BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY IN CHINA 

By B. Atwood Robinson 

The history of trade development is the history of the world. 
Trade has followed the flag wherever it has gone and all 
too often it has been the armies of the world that have 
carried forward the torch of civilization and the banner of 
commerce. Enlightened and honorable trade relations may 
prove as great an influence for good as the work of the mis- 
sionary or educator. From the early dawn of recorded his- 
tory up to the present time trade has gone hand in hand with 
the advance of civilization. Beginning in Egypt, Baby- 
lonia, and Assyria, it traveled to Carthage, Greece and 
Rome. It followed the victorious armies of the South in 
their conquest of the barbarians of northern Europe, and the 
great commercial countries of Europe are the result. With 
Columbus it crossed the Atlantic, and the United States 
and all the other great countries of North and South America 
with their teeming trade have grown and flourished. 

And now we are face to face with the last of the world's 
commercial conquests in the development of great and endur- 
ing trade relations with the other half of the world's popula- 
tion in the countries forming the western boundary of the 
great Pacific basin. 

The history of trade between America and China has often 
been written and it is unnecessary to speak in detail of it 
here. From the time when the American ship Empress of 
China arrived at Canton from New York in 1784 to the 
present time, be it said to our credit, these relations have 
been generally satisfactory to both parties, in contra-dis- 
tinction to those of China with some other countries. 

''Americans are the only people who have treated us 
according to the Golden Rule and we want to do business 
with them." These words were spoken to the writer by the 
late Viceroy Yang Hsi Hsiang, at Tientsin in 1908. 

237 



238 B. ATWOOD EOBINSON 

These words formed part of the admirable address of 
Judge Kungpah T. King of the Supreme Court of Justice, 
Peking, at a dinner in his honor in Boston in 1910. 

While your complete war equipment and unexcelled facilities 
for preparing great engines of war are very wonderful, I must say 
that I am most favorably impressed with your great commercial 
supremacy, your tremendous natural resources and your great 
factories which stand as monuments to your national industry. 
The development of commercial interests between America and 
China would be mutually beneficial. 

America is the natural source of supply in many lines, and proper 
attention to the development of commercial relations will surely 
bring about a great increase in trade, to the mutual advantage of 
both countries. 

These quotations may be said to be fairly representative 
of the sentiment of the leading men of China on this subject. 

In view of all our past relations with the Chinese, America 
may justly claim the title of "China's best friend." Ameri- 
can business men have been strangely indifferent to the uh- 
parallelled opportunity presented through the gateway of 
the great Far East. America is the one country from which 
China does not fear armed invasion, but cordially welcomes 
invasion of trade and commerce. With this record of fair 
dealing to our credit, it would seem the height of folly to 
neglect the great opportunity that confronts us for advanta- 
geous occupancy of the field. America, by virtue of her 
extensive Pacific Coast Hne is nearest neighbor to the Far 
East, while the opening of the Panama Canal will afford 
the manufacturers of the eastern states the opportunity 
of reaching that part of the world with their products on a 
very favorable basis. 

In considering trade opportunities with a country, many 
factors must be taken into account. It is as easy to over 
as to underestimate the extent of these opportunities. 
Meagerness of information is responsible for false concep- 
tions of conditions. It is, perhaps, not strange that ignor- 
ance of true conditions is so prevalent, in view of the vast 
amount if misinformation and misrepresentation that has 
been spread broadcast by ill-informed, narrow-minded, in- 



America's opportunity in china 239 

competent or prejudiced observers. It should be borne in 
mind that China has been, and is still, exploited by design- 
ing men of many lands. 

First of all a careful study of the country, its resources, 
its people and their requirements must be made. China 
is a country so rich in natural resources that with the open- 
ing up of railway and other modern means of communica- 
tion, the development of these resources will greatly increase 
the purchasing power of the people by opening up to their 
products the markets of the world. No one who has traveled 
at all extensively in China can have failed to be impressed 
with the tremendous possibilities of development there. 

The population of the various provinces, according to the 
last estimates by the imperial maritime customs is as follows : 

Anhwei 36,000,000 

Chihli 29,400,000 

Chekiang 11,800,000 

Fukien 20,000,000 

Hunan 22,000,000 

Hupeh 34,000,000 

Kiangsi 24,534,000 

Kiangsu 23,980,000 

Kwangtung 32,000,000 

Kwangsi 8,000,000 

Manchuria 17,000,000 

Shantung 38,000,000 

Szechwan 78,711,000 

Yunnan 8,000,000 

Other provinces 55,000,000 

Total 438,425,000 

Many have considered the country overcrowded, but it 
is doubtful if such is the case. Indeed, Dr. Ernst Faber 
has predicted that this population will ultimately be doubled, 
without reaching the danger line of supply and demand. 
Be this as it may, it requires not the wisdom of a Solomon 
to realize something of the vastness of the opportunity 
presented by this great multitude of people, now fully awake 
after centuries of somnolence, to a realization of their needs 
and a great longing for western culture and mode of living, 
with all of the best that goes with it. 



240 B. ATWOOD ROBINSON 

We hear much of the slowness of the Chinese, but in view 
of the startHng rapidity of development during the past 
two years, who will be so rash as to say that trade develop- 
ment will be slow? Less than eighteen months ago Mr. C. 
D. Jameson, than whom few have had better opportunities 
of studying actual conditions from the inside, in an article 
pubhshed in the Outlook, on ''The Future of China," com- 
menced as follows: "To make clear the utter hopelessness 
of renaissance in the Chinese as a nation until several gener- 
ations have passed, I must give a shght sketch of Chinese 
history." And, lo, the unexpected has happened, the oldest 
monarchy of the world has crumbled to dust and a republic 
has been firmly established, while the whole world looked on 
amazed. 

Now some would-be prophets are predicting slow com- 
mercial development. In the light of former mistakes, 
these prophecies seem rather presumptuous. The natural 
resources of a country have a most important bearing on 
its commercial activity. These resources of China are 
almost wholly undeveloped. Her vast mineral deposits have 
scarcely been touched. A single province is estimated to 
have a world's supply of coal for a thousand years and coal 
exists in at least fifteen provinces. The present annual 
output of the mines is upwards of 10,000,000 tons. There 
is a great abundance of iron, and the manufacture of steel 
and iron products has already assumed quite large propor- 
tions. Pig iron is now being shipped to the United States 
in considerable quantity. The precious metals are being 
produced in ever-increasing quantities, adding greatly to the 
purchasing power of the country. 

The agricultural productiveness is large and if proposed 
plans for a comprehensive system of protective dikes is car- 
ried out, will be greatly increased. 

A trade that is largely one-sided is not likely to assume 
large proportions, and nations wishing to transact a large 
business with each other must each be prepared to give and 
take. As we increase our purchases of China's products, so 
will she buy more largely from us. In this connection it is 
well to point out the fact that a large proportion of the ship- 



AMERICA S OPPORTUNITY IN CHINA 



241 



ments to this country from China are made through foreign 
firms and nearly all come in foreign ships. This is very 
detrimental to American prestige. In view of the approach- 
ing opening of the Panama Canal, it behooves Americans 
to awake to the importance of rehabilitating our merchant 
marine, not simply for the profit arising from the carrying 
trade, but as a means of building up our foreign commerce, 
especially in the Far East. 

In this connection the following table giving the nation- 
ality and tonnage of the various steamers entered and cleared 
at Shanghai in 1910 and 1911 will prove illuminating, ii 
not pleasing: 





1910 


1811 




Number 


Tons 


Number 


Tona 


American 


135 

48 

3,899 

66 

31 

628 

779 

3,962 

244 

142 

22 

5,352 


475,628 

190,120 

7,097,783 

81,669 

72,998 

1,207,959 

1,621,977 

3,453,652 

237,151 

277,988 

50,924 

2,910707 


107 

48 

4,112 

80 

47 

338 

694 

3,853 

307 

148 

14 

5,056 


454,467 

192,824 

7,311,167 

103,096 


Austrian 


British 


Danish 


Dutch 


113,608 

747,229 

1,600,051 

3,986,523 


French 


German 


Japanese 


Norwegian 


295,551 

266,950 

34,752 


Russian 

Swedish 


Chinese 


3,073,254 






Total 


15,308 


17,678,556 


14,804 


18,179,472 







Again, taking the statistics of the great interior port of 
Hankow, the number of steamers entering the port in 1911 
was 1833, with an aggregate tonnage of 2,220,402 tons. 
British ships led with 959,284 tons, with Japan second with 
670,873 tons. German, French, Russian, Danish, American 
and Norwegian shipping followed in the order named. 
America's total was 7376 tons! 

Those of us who have had the opportunity of studying the 
situation in European countries are only too well aware of 
the great preparations that are being made and the exten- 
sive work now in progress to secure for them commercial 



242 B. ATWOOD EOBINSON 

supremacy in China. Which of the great countries of 
the world shall most largely profit by the increasing foreign 
trade of China will depend largely upon the relative activity, 
intelligence and perseverance of the manufacturers, exporters 
and business organizations of these countries at the present 
time and in the immediate future. What shall be the 
part of the American business man in this development? 
What, indeed, shall be the part of the great American nation 
therein? We hear much these days, often in derision, of 
"dollar diplomacy." We are really only children learning 
the a,b,c's of the game. For real ''dollar diplomacy" 
let us look to Germany, the country which by intelligent 
study of conditions, the careful training of men, and the 
lavish expenditure of money has built up a great foreign com- 
merce that is bringing to her wealth and a great world influ- 
ence. Under the auspices of the German government large 
numbers of young men are taught the languages of foreign 
countries to which they are subsequently sent as missionaries 
of commerce. The recent activity of our government 
through its consular and diplomatic agents in cooperating 
with conmiercial organizations in developing and extending 
our trade with foreign countries is greatly to be commended. 
In considering trade relations with the Chinese it should 
be borne in mind that they recognize as their ideal the high- 
est standard of business honor. It is probable that of no 
other people is this so true, and it should prove a strong incen- 
tive to the extension of our commercial relations with them. 
To quote again from Mr. Jameson: 

No people are commercially more honest or have a more exalted 
idea of the sacredness of a contract — either written, verbal, or 
merely implied — than the Chinese merchant, banker or contractor 
of any kind, unless contaminated by dealings with unreliable 
foreign hongs at the open ports. The non-official word of a Chinese 
is usually as good as his bond, and his bond is as good as the wealth 
of his family. In fifteen years of dealing with Chinese merchants 
and contractors of all sorts I have never found them maliciously 
doing work contrary to the specifications or attempting to break 
their contract even if it was a losing one for them. 

During the past year, as was to be expected, there was a 
considerable decrease in the volume of foreign trade in cen- 



America's opportunity in china 



243 



tral and southern China, the districts most seriously affected 
by the revolutionary movement. Recent reports, however, 
indicate a present practically normal resumption of ship- 
ments. While in the Manchurian, Chihlian and Shantung 
ports there was a considerable increase in the volume of 
foreign trade, in the Yangtse ports, where the most severe 
fighting occurred, there was a great decrease in business. 
In the seventeen southern ports tributary to Hongkong, 
the comparative figures of 1910 and 1911 were as follows: 



Net foreign commerce ^ 

Net native imports 

Exports abroad and to native ports 




$97,647,378 
84,439,949 

39,173,035 
33,199,810 

83,015,314 
80,424,000 



The chief loss during the period accordingly came in im- 
ports of foreign goods and to a considerable extent repre- 
sented cancellation of foreign orders. The more serious 
loss in exports later, came in January and February 1912. 

In view of the recent disturbed condition of the country 
trade statistics do not possess the face value that they other- 
wise would, and need careful analysis in order that their 
true significence may be understood. In many lines, such 
for example as piece-goods, American drill, flannels, jeans, 
sheetings, shirtings, etc., the markets became seriously con- 
gested because of the stoppage of orders as a result of the 
revolutionary disturbances, but the finely organized cooper- 
ative trade guilds made it possible to carry these enormous 
stocks without serious resultant financial disturbance, and 
there is now renewed activity all along the line. The accu- 
mulated stocks having been finally disposed of there is every 
prospect of a resumption of trade in large volume. Recent 
reports indicate a rapid change in the attire of the Chinese 
and the adoption of western styles. So marked is this 
movement that it is reported that sewing machines cannot 



244 



B. ATWOOD ROBINSON 



be imported rapidly enough to satisfy the demand. There 
is also a lively demand for fabrics of various kinds, parti- 
cularly the cheaper qualities of woollen and cotton goods. 

Organization and cooperation are necessary factors in the 
successful introduction of American goods. As an example 
of the efficient and effective organization for trade in China 
we may cite the Standard Oil Company, with its constantly 
expanding trade, especially in the interior districts. A 
system of cooperation that would build up a similar organi- 
zation to handle American cotton goods and other sundries 
would go far toward solving the problems of American 
export trade. 

A comparison of the exports of cotton piece goods for the 
past four years from the United Kingdom and the United 
States to China and Hongkong follows. The British figures 
are for calendar years, while the American are for fiscal 
years ended June 30: 





1909 


1910 


1911 


1912 


United Kingdom : 
Yards 


572,443,000 
$35,593,313 

121,562,469 

$7,057,224 


471,334,200 
$35,383,266 

93,397,596 
$5,696,010 


647,449,700 
$48,027,011 

78,585,021 
$5,183,900 


527,636,800 


Value 


$39,445,896 


United States : 
Yards 


101,260,519 


Value 


$7,192,344 







With the starting of factories there is also a great demand 
for machinery of all kinds. With this in view what should 
be the attitude of the American manufacturer and exporter 
in the matter? How shall he proceed to take advantage of 
the situation and develop an export trade with China? 

Comparative statements of the years 1910 and 1911 of 
the import and export trade of leading trade centres have 
recently been received through consular channels. These 
are too elaborate for incorporation in full in a paper of this 
scope, but some excerpts from them may prove interesting 
and enlightening. 

Shanghai is, of course, far ahead of other ports in the 
matter of imports and exports. It is interesting to note that 
notwithstanding the serious effect of the revolution on trade 



America's opportunity in china 



245 



during the latter part of 1911, the gross value of the merchan- 
dise arriving and departing, according to the report of the 
national maritime customs, amounted to $314,731,444, an 
increase of $3,824,174 over 1910, and constituting a record. 
The following table gives the gross and net trade of Shang- 
hai in 1910 and 1911: 



Opium, cwt 

Cotton manufactures: 

Piece goods, pieces 

Towels, dozen 

Yarns and waste, cwt 

Nankeens, cwt 

Woolen and cotton mixtures, yards. 

Antimony and ore, cwt 

Pig iron, cwt 

Arms and munitions of war, value 

Bags, gunny, pieces 

Bean cake, cwt 

Beans, cwt 

Bran, cwt 

Cotton, raw and waste, cwt 

Curios, value 

Eggs: 

Albumen and yolk, cwt 

Fresh, pieces 

Preserved, pieces 

Salted, pieces 

Fiber, ramie, cwt 

Flour, cwt 

Groundnut cake and pulp, cwt 

Groundnuts, cwt 

Human hair, ctw 

Hats, number 

Medicines, value 

Oils 

Bean, cwt 

Cottonseed, cwt 

Groundnut, cwt 

Rape, cwt 

Sesamum, cwt 

Tea, cwt 

Wood, cwt 

Pearls, real, value 

Rice, cwt 



1910 



1811 



7,006 

345,268 
34,696 
10,124 

113,505 
44,705 

117,083 

386,976 

1,540,518 
1,146,441 
2,152,374 
455,412 
1,738,208 
$290,381 

138,524 

117,833,678 

8,396,208 

704,350 

266,490 

1,669,017 

471,591 

190,077 

16,524 

4,343,581 

$1,351,647 

154,996 

69,876 

361,008 

18,130 

4,950 

14,701 

540,340 

$4,361 

2,136,285 



2,120 

743,847 

8,468 

518,451 

113,030 

31,918 

130,317 

460,765 

$222,301 

2,954,295 

1,711,469 

2,106,737 

474,141 

1,108,138 

$351,256 

136,882 

88,365,977 

7,531,415 

773,580 

223,026 

955,270 

470,054 

271,240 

10,270 

5,028,375 

$1,268,202 

214,088 

44,312 

380,253 

16,345 

7,122 

19,048 

460,534 

$42,959 

3,624,490 



246 



B. ATWOOD ROBINSON 



1910 



igii 



Seed: 

Cotton, cwt 

Sesamum, cwt 

Seedcake, cwt 

Shoes and boots, silk and cotton, pairs. 
Silk: 

Raw, spun, cocoons, waste, etc., cwt. 

Piece goods, cwt 

Pongees, cwt 

Skins : 

Goat, pieces 

Lamb, pieces 

Sheep, pieces 

Weasel, pieces 

Straw braid, cwt 

Sugar, cwt 

Tea, cwt 

Tobacco, leaf and prepared, cwt 

Varnish, cwt 

Wheat, cwt 

Wool, sheeps, cwt 



283,070 


217,980 


2,846,996 


2,078,476 


1,550.360 


1,424,332 


158,942 


196,094 


282,844 


285,606 


18,707 


17,702 


14,472 


11,958 


8,894,333 


7,699,309 


707,136 


441,173 


320,671 


235,697 


881,133 


706,874 


101,408 


83,114 


293,187 


337,690 


628,162 


636,780 


216,500 


162,968 


20,047 


20,465 


74,894 


38,308 


242,501 


395,282 



The exports from Shanghai to the United States decreased 
from $14,669,206 in 1910 to $12,878,281 in 1911. 

The following table gives the value of the principal articles 
thus exported: 



1010 



1911 



Albumen 

Antimony 

Books, Chinese 

Brass ware 

Bristles 

Camphor 

Chairs, rattan 

Chinaware 

Coal 

Coke 

Cotton, raw 

Cottonseed cake 

Curios 

Eggs and egg yolk. 

Feathers 

Fibers, China grass 
Furs, dressed 



$143,493 

1,699 

1,233 

34,016 

47,317 

4,172 
9,773 

12,368 

513,633 

2,324 

5,322 

2,096 

13,713 
5,781 

50,599 



$226,061 

3,473 

2,520 

1,086 

49,014 

2,271 
27,589 

20,710 
298,290 

14,523 
4,205 
31,041 
12,793 
15,468 



AMERICA S OPPORTUNITY IN CHINA 



247 



Hair: 

Animal 

Human 

Hats: 

Raffia 

Rush 

Straw 

Wood-shaving 

Hides, cow and calf 

Hog products 

Household and personal effects. 

Iron, pig 

Jade 

Musk 

Nuts: 

Gall 

Ground 

Pea 

Walnuts 

Oils: 

Bean 

Cottonseed 

Rapeseed 

Vegetable 

Wood 

Ramie 

Rhubarb 

Silk: 

Cocoons, pierced 

Piece goods 

Pongees 

Silk: 

Raw 

Tussah 

Waste 

Wild 

Manufactures, n.e.s , 

Skins : 

Dog mats 

Dog robes 

Goat 

Lamb 

Leopard 

Sheep 

Tiger 

Weasel 

Other 



1910 



1,086 
46,621 



21,685 

2,251 

809 

288,018 

10,454 
91,788 

55,516 

7,381 
43,194 

16,762 

110,258 

144,558 

5,247 

17,108 

16,978 

6,764 

20,713 

9,052 

457 

63,966 

6,897,922 

157,810 

548,741 

1,127 

42,292 
36,894 
1,633,133 
56,987 
13,637 

10,627 

131,811 

36,751 



1911 



27,500 

554 
25,080 
26,288 
39,303 
65,660 
2,327 
23,370 
26,471 
20,789 
223,021 

22,192 
3,360 
5,355 

91,072 

127,174 

169,778 

11,433 

39,488 

14,246 



2,038 
11,458 

6,970,067 

14,764 

118,431 

373,774 

1,260 

71,731 

7,837 

1,021,187 

42,599 

663 

43,222 

18,811 
2,157 



248 



B. ATWOOD ROBINSON 



ABTICLES 


1910 


1911 


Straw braid 


611,575 

10,067 

2,144,881 

491,743 

151,754 


431,225 


Tallow 


51 


Tea 


1,352,033 


Wool 


751,560 
42,346 


All other articles 






Total 


$14,669,206 


$12,878,281 







While the foreign trade of Hankow, passing through the 
maritime customs, makes this port the second in China, 
in direct foreign trade it stands sixth, although this classifi- 
cation is misleading owing to the fact that of goods shipped 
to Chinese ports a large share represent shipments for foreign 
countries. 

The reports from Manchuria and ports of Tientsin, Can- 
ton, etc., are quite similar to those of Shanghai, and taken as 
a whole form a mighty argument for increased activity on 
the part of American firms. 

It may be well to briefly point out some of the causes of 
failure on our part to fully realize our expectations in the 
volume of business done, and to suggest some improvements 
in methods. Ignorance and apathy go hand in hand as 
twin causes of failure to control our rightful share of China's 
foreign trade, import and export. A systematic study of 
present conditions and the adoption of methods suitable to 
meet these conditions is a prerequisite to success. 

Ignorance of correct methods and of the fact that business 
may be successfully conducted without prohibitive expense 
or great risk, prevents many from entering what would prove 
a very profitable field, while the fallacy of the sufl&ciency of 
the home market for present and future absorption of pro- 
ducts blinds many to the great opportunity awaiting them. 

Consular reports are of value in furnishing statistics and 
general information regarding local conditions, but the ap- 
pointment of special government commercial agents compe- 
tent to study and report the situation in all its bearings and 
to make recommendations of real value to the manufac- 
turers of the country, would be a most important and help- 
ful move in the right direction. The great commercial 



America's opportunity in china 249 

organizations of the country, its chambers of commerce, 
boards of trade, etc., should unite in the effort to procure 
for the business men of the country up-to-date information 
along these lines. Conditions in China have undergone a 
rapid and radical change and new conditions call for new 
methods, and the crying need of today is for a comprehen- 
sive study of the situation and the application of methods 
suitable to present conditions. Another important and ad- 
vantageous move would be the establishment of an American 
chamber of commerce in one or more of the leading ports of 
China. This should be done under the auspices of the 
Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, 
thus insuring the absence of any sectional or personal favori- 
tism and guaranteeing fair and equitable treatment to all. 
Membership in these should be open to all reputable Ameri- 
can business men on lines similar to those obtaining in the 
American Chamber of Commerce of Paris. 

Perhaps in no other country has the development of trade 
organizations or guilds been brought to so high a point as in 
China. In all the leading ports her chambers of commerce 
are serious, helpful bodies. It is interesting to note that 
during the serious financial depression accompanying and 
following the boom and collapse in rubber securities and the 
failures of banks, the provincial authorities with the aid of 
the local chamber of commerce succeeded in relieving the 
situation. This indicates a spirit of cooperation highly com- 
mendatory and which we may profitably emulate in our 
efforts to secure our share of the trade of the country. 

It must be recognized that there exist today difficulties in 
the way of the establishment of extensive trade relations with 
China that are not so marked in our commerce with other 
countries. 

Probably the most important factor in Chinese foreign 
trade is the fluctuating exchange value of silver with gold, 
with its consequent bearing on the exports and imports of 
the country. A perusal of such statistics as are available 
clearly indicates that the import trade of China increases in 
ratio to the increase in the exchange value of silver and 
decreases in ratio to their decreased value. Without ven- 



250 B. ATWOOD ROBINSON 

turing a positive prediction, it may safely be said that it is 
the general opinion of trade authorities of the world that the 
present high value of their coinage is but the beginning of an 
extended period of high exchange which cannot fail of a 
stimulating effect on her import trade. 

Many factors enter into the exchange situation in China in 
its relation to imports and exports, but it is not the province 
of this paper to speak of them in detail. Suffice it to say 
that the question of a suitable currency system that shall 
bear such relation to the systems of the great commercial 
countries of the world as to insure something approaching 
stabihty and dependability in rates of exchange is being 
deeply studied by Chinese authorities in such matters, 
assisted by foreign advisers of recognized ability, and while 
it may be too much to hope for the speedy bringing of order 
out of chaos, it is reasonable to expect a continual advance 
in the direction of ideal conditions. 

A strong effort is being made to estabhsh a uniform system 
of keeping and auditing public accounts, which is sure to 
have a good effect in reorganizing, systematizing and bring- 
ing into being a uniform system of taxation, which is an 
essential to the upbuilding of a great interprovincial and 
international trade. One of the chief obstacles to trade 
extension in China is the almost absolute lack of anything 
resembling system in the assessment of taxes and liken or 
customs duties. In many instances goods in transit are 
subjected to repeated assessment en route from province 
to province and sometimes from town to town, in order to 
furnish ''squeeze" for the officials. This, of course, greatly 
hampers and limits the extension of trade, and while it is 
too much to expect that this will immediately be done away 
with, I am in receipt of recent personal communications from 
high authorities giving assurance that as a result of study 
of the situation now being made by native and foreign 
experts, a change for the better is confidently looked for in 
the near future. I dwell thus at length on this point because 
of its important bearing on the foreign trade of the country. 
The fact that such abuses exist should not act as a deterrent 
to active effort for trade increases, for it is practically cer- 



America's opportunity in china 251 

tain that under the new form of government, and as a result 
of the investigations now in progress, existing conditions 
will eventually give way to modern and equitable methods 
of taxation. 

A demand for our goods must be created and this cannot 
be done without the expenditure of money, but a small 
percentage of the amount expended by the average American 
manufacturer in securing an outlet for his products in the 
home market would, if wisely applied, secure for him a foot- 
hold in the Chinese market that would have a future value 
far greater than would result from the expenditure of the 
same amount at home. If ever American exporters and man- 
ufacturers were justified in establishing the agencies which 
are the primary requirement of trade in China, it is at the 
present time. 

For many reasons the ideal method is the maintenance 
abroad of one's own office and sales force, but excepting in 
the case of a few of the largest concerns, this involves pro- 
hibitive expense. Another method that is much more 
extensively employed, and with good results, is the sending 
of salesmen direct from headquarters. This method may 
be employed where there is a sufficiently large market for 
the goods offered, but the only practicable method for the 
average manufacturer is to place his goods before the pros- 
pective customers through the medium of some one of the 
large importing houses of the country. 

And right here is where many of our American concerns 
make the initial mistake that eventually costs them dearly 
and not infrequently discourages them and causes them to 
relinquish the field. The mistake referred to is the placing 
of agencies with foreign individuals or firms. The usual 
European custom so familiar to American travelers in Europe 
of decrying everything American, prevails to an even greater 
extent amongst the foreign houses in China. They have no 
good word for Americans or their products, and it is a rare 
exception where an American is employed by any of these 
concerns. It is a humiliating spectacle to the American 
business man traveling in Chiaa to find the great majority of 
American concerns represented by foreigners. These for- 



252 B. ATWOOD ROBINSON 

eigners are, if possible, more patriotic in China than at home, 
and it is too frequently the case the American agencies 
secured by them are used to advance the sale of competing 
lines from their own countries. Instances are not lacking 
where samples of American goods have been sent by these 
agents, with prices and full particulars, to their home coun- 
tries to be reproduced there and introduced into China at 
the expense of the American manufacturer. Nor is this the 
only unfortunate feature of the practice. It is distinctly 
detrimental to American prestige in China. In a country 
where the American flag is almost never seen on the ships of 
commerce and where American manufacturers are so largely 
represented by foreign concerns, it is not difficult to under- 
stand why our country and its products suffer by compari- 
son with those of some other nations. 

There are some representative American houses in China 
handling American goods, but there is room for more, and 
American manufacturers should see that their goods are 
handled by Americans. Too often the eastern branches of 
American financial and industrial concerns are managed by 
foreigners or largely manned by them. This is looked upon 
by the Chinese as a confession of weakness and inferiority 
on the part of Americans and an acknowledgment of the 
superior business ability of the foreigner. 

From patriotic, no less than business motives, Americans 
should speedily bring about a change in these conditions and 
employ Americans only in the exploitation of their goods. 
It will be a fortunate day for American trade with China 
when our manufacturers are represented by American 
houses employing none but Americans in their service, for 
it is a well-known fact that foreigners seek employment with 
such concerns for the sole purpose of acquiring inside knowl- 
edge of their goods, methods, etc., to be later used to the 
advantage of their foreign competitors. 

Cooperation on the part of American manufacturers of 
goods in similar lines, but which do not compete, in the 
establishment of a house for the sale of their respective pro- 
ducts would doubtless prove profitable if carried out on a 
broad scale, with able management and a complete corps of 



America's opportunity in china 253 

competent salesmen. In the great interior districts nearly- 
all the trade is in the hands of the native merchants who 
purchase their goods in the markets of the great ports, and 
are largely guided in their selections by their correspondents 
in these distributing centres. Here is another argument for 
the establishment of distinctly American houses on a scale 
to create and uphold American prestige. In some of the 
inland districts there are British, German and French firms 
engaged in the importation of foreign goods, but no Ameri- 
cans. 

We must learn one thing if we are to secure our rightful 
share of the Chinese business, and that is that we must not 
be too impatient for immediate profits. Our foreign com- 
petitors are willing to plant the seed and carefully nurture 
the young and growing trade until it is ripe for the harvest, 
while too many American firms are like the amateur farmer 
who digs up his seed every day or two to see if they are 
sprouting. 

Again, in order to create and maintain intimate and per- 
manent commercial relations with China, we must acquire 
the eastern point of view and seek to meet their ideas of 
their requirements rather than to seek to foist our own upon 
them. 

China purchases each year from foreign countries more 
than 250 varieties of goods. The United States partici- 
pates in less than half of these, and ranks third or higher in 
only 27. This can hardly be said to represent our fair 
proportion of the trade. It may not be practicable for us 
to compete with other countries in all these lines, but there 
are doubtless some in which we do not now participate in 
which we could secure a portion of the trade, and in the lines 
in which we are already represented, increased sales would 
doubtless follow the adoption of vigorous selling methods. 

Among the articles which are enjoying an increased 
demand, with every promise of a rapid and continued in- 
crease for many years, may be mentioned the following: 
Clothing, boots and shoes, cotton and woolen goods, bicycles, 
clocks and watches, hats, caps, gloves, hosiery, haberdashery 
and underwear, phonographs, photographic and optical 



254 B. ATWOOD ROBINSON 

supplies, lamps, machinery, railway and electrical appli- 
ances, automobiles, hardware and building material. 

The importance of adequate American banking facilities 
in China cannot be overestimated. The cooperation of 
leading financial interests with large business concerns, with 
branches in Peking, Shanghai, and other large business cen- 
tres, for the purpose of financing great industrial undertak- 
ings, as well as furnishing all material, engineering and con- 
struction, is one of the great needs of the day, and one in 
which Americans are sadly behind their British and German 
competitors, who have far superior organizations in China, 
and make a more careful study of the requirements of the 
market. In Germany, in particular, the banks and manu- 
facturers combine their interests and are thus prepared to 
secure profitable business by granting longer credits than it is 
possible for American concerns, to give under existing con- 
ditions. 

This question of credits enters very vitally into our trade 
relations with China. It is of the utmost importance that 
we develop as speedily as possible this cooperation between 
our financial and industrial concerns, if we are to maintain 
our rightful position in connection with China's foreign 
trade. 

In connection with railway construction and equipment, 
electrical and mechanical installations and general construc- 
tion work, it is of the utmost importance that the represen- 
tatives on the spot be competent to give inteUigent informa- 
tion, specifications and quotations without delay. Many a 
good contract has been lost to a foreign competitor because 
of the absence of these requirements on the part of the Ameri- 
can representative. 

Illustrated catalogues printed in the Chinese language are 
a necessity in the introduction of many fines of goods, and 
where prices are quoted, they should always be c.i.f. Shang- 
hai or some other Chinese port, as the people there have no 
way of ascertaining the cost of transportation from interior 
cities of the United States. 

There should be estabUshed at Shanghai and possibly 
other important trade centres, permanent exhibitions of 



America's opportunity in china 255 

American goods, in order to acquaint the people with our 
products. 

I have only been able to touch briefly on a few of the most 
salient features bearing on successful commercial relations 
with China, and now to sum up : 

1. China has a population of upwards of 400,000,000 
people who are rapidly developing along western lines of 
living, with all the increasing demand for our goods conse- 
quent thereon. 

2. The country has enormous natural resources which are 
Ijeing opened up to the markets of the world by rapid progress 
of railway construction, thus greatly increasing the purchas- 
ing power of the people. 

3. Having this great population with ever-increasing 
requirements for foreign goods, it must be recognized that 
China will in the future furnish a great outlet for our sur- 
plus products. Now, therefore, is the time to secure a firm 
foothold and establish commercial relations that will gain 
for us the confidence and respect of the Chinese against the 
time of their great commercial activity. 

4. We must make a careful study of conditions and re- 
quirements and acquire an intimate knowledge of the 
demands of the native trade. 

5. We must not expect immediately profitable results, 
but by acquiring a better understanding of good export 
methods gradually lay the foundations of the great business 
that is sure to follow. 

6. Establish adequate banking facilities, and put none but 
American representatives in the field, backed by sincere 
and genuinely interested producers. 

7. Above all let us remember that American prestige is 
at stake. Not merely for the sake of financial gain, although 
this is sure to follow, but as patriotic Americans let us 
strive to attain and maintain our rightful position in China's 
commercial relations with the world, a position which shall 
not only prove financially profitable to all concerned, but 
shall, by bringing these two great nations into close and 
harmonious commercial relations, materially assist in hasten- 
ing the day of universal and permanent peace amongst the 
nations of the earth. 



THE INDUSTRIAL FUTURE OF SHANSI PROVINCE 

By Rev. Paul L. Corhin of Shansi Province 

The province of Shansi is in the northern tier of the ori- 
ginal eighteen provinces of China, and Hes between Latitude 
35° and 41° North and Longitude 111° to 114° East. The 
province is bounded on the north by MongoUa, on the east 
by Chihh, the metropolitan province, on the south and west* 
by the Yellow River, separating it from Honan and Shensi 
provinces respectively. The area of the province, not includ- 
ing the districts lying to the north of the Great Wall, is 
about 56,000 square miles. Its population has been vari- 
ously estimated from 9,500,000 to 12,000,000. 

The importance of the province from an industrial view- 
point lies in two facts: first, it has vast deposits of mineral 
wealth; second, it is, in a sense, the gateway to the north- 
west of China and the heart of Asia. Certain lines of travel 
across the province have long indicated that one of its 
problems when the awakening to the touch of western civili- 
zation comes will be the problem of transportation. The 
chief problem in its industrial development, however, con- 
cerns its mineral wealth. 

Before discussing either of these problems it may be well 
to describe the general topography of the province. Rising 
from the low plain which covers the greater portion of Chihli 
Province are ranges of hills extending from north to south. 
Shansi lies amid these hills. It is made up of successive 
ranges, bisected by water-courses, and with three elevated 
plains, or basins. The greater number of streams in the 
mountains are, naturally, tributary to the Yellow River: 
the river of chief importance among these is the Fen, which 
drains the central, largest, and most important of the three 
plateaus. The lower ranges of hills are of the wonderful 
loess formation, and are tillable. The higher ranges approach 
to the dignity of mountains, and are, for the most part, 

256 



INDUSTRIAL FUTURE OF SHANSI PROVINCE 257 

rocky and with scant vegetation. Broadly speaking, the 
ranges diminish in altitude as one travels from the north to 
the south. 

The first investigator into the mineral resources of Shansi 
was a German scholar, Baron von Richthofen. In con- 
nection with extensive journeys through all China to deter- 
mine the industrial possibilities, this indefatigable explorer 
traveled across Shansi in 1870, approaching from the south 
and following the great central highway of the province 
from Pingyangfu to Jaiyuanfu, the provincial capital. He 
returned some months later for a second visit, reaching on 
that occasion the northern districts of the province. It is 
certain that he did not see a great part of the bituminous 
coal field of Shansi, but he saw the best-known portions of 
the anthracite field. He also investigated some of the dis- 
tricts where iron is produced. He concluded that the east- 
ern half of the province over-lay a vast bed of anthracite, 
while in the western half there were extensive bituminous 
formations, the two fields being separated by the basin of 
the Fen River. However, the writer has found bituminous 
mines in the very center of what von Richthofen described 
as the anthracite field, and there are other indications that 
the respective fields may not be as regular in outHne as he 
thought. It is probably true, too, that von Richthofen 
under-estimated rather than overestimated the bituminous 
fields. Certain very rich districts he did not visit at all. 
But he was evidently very greatly impressed by what he 
saw, and wrote that ''there is coal enough in Shansi to last 
the world for thousands of years at the present rate of con- 
sumption." A recent writer has said that the anthracite 
deposits of Shansi alone are equal to all the anthracite depo- 
sits of the United States. 

The information von Richthofen gave naturally drew some 
attention to the mineral wealth of Shansi. For a long time, 
however, no effort was made either by the foreigners or 
by the Chinese themselves, aside from the crude methods 
already in vogue, to exploit this mineral wealth. The con- 
ditions of transportation, the lack of markets in north China, 
and the fact that China was still a sealed land, made it 



258 PAUL L. CORBIN 

impossible to act upon the information von Richthofen gave 
for many years. The year 1898 saw far-reaching changes 
imminent in north China, following the reform program of the 
Emperor Kuang Hsii. In that year a mining concession in 
Shansi was granted to the Peking Syndicate. The over- 
throw of the reform party, and the reactionary policy of the 
government which followed, culminating in the so-called 
''Boxer rebellion" in 1900, kept the Syndicate from begin- 
ning the development of its concession. Later, however, as 
the railway from Chengtingfu to Taiyuanfu penetrated the 
eastern ranges of Shansi, so affording an outlet by rail to 
Peking and Tientsin, the Syndicate began to open up its 
field. Experts were sent in to make careful investigations, 
especially in the department of Pingting. A base was estab- 
lished in that department and houses erected for the foreign 
staff. 

About this time the Chinese themselves awoke to the possi- 
bilities of the concession they had given. The terms of the 
concession were manifestly not liberal to the Chinese. They 
made it practically impossible for the native mine-owners 
to work their mines by modern methods, or for native capital 
to open up new mines. An agitation against the Syndicate 
was begun, given some dramatic touches by the students 
in the provincial capital, and carried to an issue that the 
people of Shansi esteemed successful when, in 1907, the Syn- 
dicate was ousted from the province. The concession was 
given up, but the people of the province indemnified the 
Peking Syndicate to the amount of 2,750,000 taels. Every 
sincere wellwisher of China must regret that this outcome was 
necessary. Had the terms of the concession been fair and 
liberal to the Chinese, the Peking Syndicate might today be 
in possession of its concession, at work in that magnificent 
field, and paying regular dividends to satisfied and happy 
stockholders. 

Prior to the ousting of the Peking Syndicate the Chinese 
themselves had organized a company, called, the ''Pao 
Chin Kung Ssu," i.e., the ''Corporation for the Protection 
of Shansi," Chin being an ancient name of Shansi. This 
company took over the buildings erected by the Peking 



INDUSTKIAL FUTURE OF SHANSI PROVINCE 259 

Syndicate in the Pingting department and endeavored to 
supersede that corporation in its program for that field. It 
employed as its foreign engineer a young man whose chief 
qualifications for the oflace were that he had lived a good 
many years in China and spoke the Chinese language. That 
he knew nothing of mining engineering was, evidently, not 
considered a disability. Under the guidance of this expert 
(?) the corporation did not make any great progress, at least 
in adopting modern methods of working. The engineer 
traveled extensively throughout the district, but left neither 
maps of his journeys nor memoranda of his investigations. 
The company bought coal delivered by pack-animals at the 
railway stations, and sold it in yards opened in Peking and 
Tientsin. That is the method being followed today. The 
area from which the coal is drawn is comparatively limited, 
and the methods of mining employed are still of the crudest. 

In the district of Hsiao-yi, 80 miles southwest of the pro- 
vincial capital, a company of Chinese has installed modern 
machinery for pumping and hoisting. The cost of transport- 
ing the machinery from the coast was enormous and install- 
ing it was a long and expensive process. The German 
engineers sent to supervise the installation of the machinery 
were far from being experts in that line of work. In due 
time they turned the mines over to the Chinese again and 
with a result as inevitable as it was deplorable. Success 
in hoisting unheard of quantities of coal led to experiments 
in the lower levels of the mine. Props gave way, fifty or 
sixty lives were crushed out, the mine was flooded, and a 
lot of expensive machinery is rusting in and about that pit. 

The natives have both surface and pit mines in Shansi. 
In the latter the coal is hoisted with a windlass, turned by 
animal power or by hand. In one mine I have visited, the 
only light possible in the pit is from lighted sticks of punk, 
giving an illumination considerably less than the glowing tip 
of a cigar. Labor under such conditions must be extremely 
difficult. In this mine the men were paid a wage 20 per 
cent in advance of the cost of other lines of manual labor in 
that region, yet an excellent quality of soft coal sold at the 
pit's mouth at the equivalent of 90 cents a ton. Wlien the 



260 PAUL L. CORBIN 

competition was keener the price had been as low as 60 cents 
a ton. 

The chief iron producing districts of the province are 
the prefecture of Tsehchow in the southwest, and the depart- 
ment of Pingting in the east, the latter tapped by the nar- 
row-guage Cheng-ting-Taiyuan railway. Other iron de- 
posits are in the Yungning and Ninghsiang districts in the 
west of the province, where some pig-iron of poor quality 
is produced, and used locally, and in the Ningwu prefecture 
in the north of the province. The Tsehchow and Pingting 
fields have been quite extensively worked in the crude native 
fashion; its must be, however, that they are capable of great 
development under improved methods. 

While speaking of the mineral wealth of the province we 
must not neglect the saline deposits. In the southwest 
near the walled town of Yun-cheng is a salt lake, farmed out 
to a large number of native companies, and from which the 
government derives so considerable a revenue that an official 
staff is stationed there to care for it. There is also a deposit 
of gypsum in this neighborhood. In the central plain of 
the province in the Taiynan prefecture, the natives have 
opened numerous salt wells. The salt from these wells is 
very bitter and decidedly inferior in quality to that from the 
Yiin-cheng lake. There are saline deposits, also, in Suiyuan 
in the extreme north of the province on the Mongolian bor- 
der, and in Fengch^n in the northeast, the latter district also 
producing some soda. 

From the above it will be seen that the mineral resources 
of the province are rich, especially in coal and iron. The 
problem is, to develop these resources by improvements in 
the methods and by putting them in touch with the markets. 
This leads us naturally to consider the problem of transporta- 
tion. 

In the palmy days of the Manchu dynasty Shansi reached a 
high degree of affluence, but it was not through the develop- 
ment of the natural resources of the province. Great for- 
tunes were made by bankers and pawn-shop men in the four 
corners of the empire and the fruits of those fortunes were 
escorted into Shansi over almost impassable trails to the 



INDUSTRIAL FUTURE OF SHANSI PROVINCE 261 

accompaniment of tinkling donkey-bells. All about the 
mineral riches of the province nature had thrown an almost 
insurmountable mountain barrier. The perseverance of 
men has, however, succeeded in throwing roadways or trails 
over range after range of mountains, and in maintaining a 
great number of carriers upon these road-ways. It would 
be profitable indeed, did time permit, to describe these an- 
cient thoroughfares. They have a charm and a romance all 
their own. It is more to the point, however, to consider the 
efforts of modern engineers to penetrate Shansi's mountain 
fastnesses. There is but one completed railway line into 
Shansi. A narrow-guage road, with its eastern terminus 
at Shih Chia Chuang, near Chengtingfu, on the Peking Han- 
kow line in Chihli Province, runs almost due west to Tai- 
yuanfu. The road is very crooked and the engineering 
difficulties have been considerable. The total length is 
about 151 miles. In that distance there are eighteen tunnels 
and a large number of bridges and culverts. It is to be 
regretted that the road is narrow-guage, but such is the 
character of the country traversed that to have constructed 
a standard-guage road would have multiplied the cost four- 
fold. 

One other road into Shansi is under construction, namely, 
an extension of the Peking-Kalgan line to Suiyuan and 
Kweihuating, important commercial centers, on the Mongo- 
lian border. Inside the province a railway line is under 
construction, the so-called Jung-Pu Railway, the ultimate 
termini of which are to be Tatungfu in the north and Puchow- 
fu in the southwest, on the Yellow River, at the gateway to 
Shensi Province. At the northern terminus the road is to 
connect with the extension of the Peking-Kalgan line. It 
will run through Taiyuanfu and will follow in a general way, 
the great central highway that has for centuries been the 
connecting link between Taiyuanfu and Sianfu. Thus far 
grading has been done between Yiitzu, on the Cheng-ting- 
Taiyuan line, and Taiku, 25 miles to the south and west. 
The outbreak of the revolution in the autumn of 191 1 stopped 
work upon this section of the road shortly before the laying 
of rails would have been begun. 



262 PAUL L. CORBIN 

The old trade routes followed the lines of least physical 
resistance through the mountain ranges, usually in or near 
the beds of water courses. The railways thus far constructed 
or under construction have, with certain modifications, 
followed the old trade routes. Generally speaking, this 
will probably be advisable in future railway construction, 
though thorough scientific investigation may open up some 
new fields for industrial development that even the ingenious 
Chinese have not yet discovered. 

It is practically certain that with the development of 
Shansi's mineral wealth and industrial possibilities one nar- 
row-guage railway will be entirely inadequate to care for the 
traffic. Other outlets must, therefore, be sought. The 
central trunk line connecting with the extension of the Peking 
Kalgan line will, to a certain extent, relieve the pressure. 
Further than that, it will doubtless be necessary to construct 
a line from the rich central plain in a southeasterly direc- 
tion to northern Honan, following a well-known and impor- 
tant trade-route, and the coal and iron fields of Luan and 
Tsechow might well find an outlet to Shuntefu or Changtefu 
to the east. Moreover, for the fullest industrial develop- 
ment it will be necessary to build a number of branch lines 
or ''spurs," especially to tap the richer coal fields. 

The Yellow River, which forms the western and southern 
boundaries of Shansi, cannot be considered an asset in any 
solution of the provinces transportation problem. Some 
cargo boats go down the river, but, at any rate along those 
reaches, none return up-stream. When the boats reach 
the northern border of Honan they are broken up and the 
lumber sold. Within the province itself there are no navig- 
able streams. Occasionally small scows appear in the Fen, 
the largest of these streams, for the transport of flour and 
coal ; but the river is frequently drained of its entire stream 
to supply the irrigating ditches of the fertile mid-Shansi 
plain. In summing up our consideration of this transporta- 
tion problem we should say that the most hopeful suggestion 
for the industrial future of Shansi lies in the extension of the 
railway system. 

The question of afforestation should receive some atten- 



INDUSTRIAL FUTURE OF SHANSI PROVINCE 263 

tion. It is probable that more than three-fourths of the 
area of the province was at one time covered with forest. 
The desiccation of the province in recent periods owing to 
deforestation has been marked, and this was to a large extent 
responsible for the terrible famine of 1877-78 which claimed 
the lives of between five and six miUion people in Shansi 
alone. Edwards of Taiyuanfu computed the rainfall for 
an entire year at sixteen inches. The average is probably 
a little higher than that. Atwood projected a theory that 
the rainfall increases and diminishes in a cycle covering 
twenty-four years, perhaps gathering data to support an 
idea he received from native sources. This, however, has 
nothing to do with the question of afforestation. An arbore- 
tum at Taikuhsien contains about twenty varieties of forest 
trees than can be successfully cultivated in Shansi soil. 
In the roofs of temples and other large buildings are found 
timbers that indicate something of the size and distribution 
of the forests in the past; while in the back blocks in both 
the eastern and western ranges of hills are yet to be found the 
disappearing remnants of the former extensive woodlands. 
Early and careful attention to the work of reforestation would 
provide needed building material for the future and would, 
at the same time, affect favorably the rainfall and so bear 
upon the problem of developing the agricultural resources. 
In the last years of the late dynasty certain governors of 
the province gave this question their attention, but the meas- 
ures they proposed were never carried out. 

An important problem in the industrial future of Shansi 
is the development of agricultural resources. In soil, climate 
and diversity of products the province has been singularly 
favored by nature. The wonderful loess formation covers 
the entire province, and because of that fact many of the 
hills are cultivable to their very summits. The climate 
while similar to that of the same latitude in America, is not 
subject to such extremes. But it is in diversity of products 
that Shansi's claim to agricultural wealth and importance 
lies. The following are some of them: field products; 
wheat (both spring and winter), millet (4 or 5 varieties), 
Kaoling, oats (both summer and autumn), rice, buckwheat, 



264 PAUL L. CORBIN 

barley, maize, and beans. Other field products are hemp, 
cotton, flax (in the extreme northeast), indigo, tobacco, 
and willows for basket weaving. The hills, especially in the 
northwest, yield large quantities of licorice and ginger, and 
a crude silk is produced in the districts bordering the Yellow 
River. Among the products of the gardens are potatoes 
(superior quality), yams, sweet potatoes, peppers, onions, 
melons (4 or 5 varieties), and practically all the products of 
American and European gardens. Among the fruits pro- 
duced are apples, pears, persimmons, grapes (some six 
varieties), peaches, plums, dates, mulberries, cherries, wal- 
nuts (the finest in China), and strawberries, the last named 
introduced by foreigners. 

The most important cereals produced in Shansi are wheat 
and millet. The normal land valuation is probably deter- 
mined by wheat, just as it is fixed by rice in south China. 
The agricultural problem is made acute just now in Shansi 
by the necessity of finding the best substitute for the poppy 
formerly so extensively cultivated. The poppy demanded 
the richest irrigable lands and sapped the vitahty of the 
soil. In the four years since its cultivation was prohibited 
much of the land has returned to wheat as the spring crop 
and millet as the autumn crop, with the result not only that 
the price of flour has fallen in the wheat-producing districts, 
but also that millions of bushels of both the above mentioned 
cereals have been shipped via the Chengting-Taiyuan rail- 
way to supply the markets of ChihU and Honan. Though 
opium is the most profitable crop, financially, the farmer of 
North China has ever grown, its contribution to general 
prosperity was neghgible, and it has been interesting to 
observe that since the prohibition of its cultivation and the 
substitution of wheat and millet as staple crops, though the 
immediate financial return for them is much less the general 
prosperity, as guaged by two excellent criteria, the amount 
of building and repairing done, and the number of theatrical 
performances held in the villages, is much greater. Opium, 
because immediately a more profitable crop gave to the land 
a fictitious valuation. This was from 30 to 60 per cent above 
the normal valuation as fixed by wheat. The economic 



INDUSTRIAL FUTURE OF SHANSI PROVINCE 265 

readjustment necessary now that opium may no longer be 
produced constitutes the crux of the agricultural problem in 
Shansi. Careful study must be given to the question of the 
best substitute for the poppy. 

Shansi was formerly one of the leading provinces in the 
production of opium. The easily irrigated fields alongside 
the watercourses, and where the mountain streams flowed 
out upon the plains, were covered with patches of poppy. 
The local markets cared for much of it, but a good deal was 
shipped out to Peking and Tientsin, or over the Luanfu 
road to Honan. In 1909 the edict calling for the gradual 
cessation of poppy growing took effect in Shansi. In the 
spring of that year I traveled several hundred miles in central 
Shansi, in five separate prefectures or departments, and 
along mountain streams where the year before the poppy had 
been extensively grown. Everywhere I made careful inves- 
tigations, and I found that no opium was being planted 
anywhere. In the following spring, 1910, in the Chiao- 
Ch'eng and Wen-Shui districts, the former in the Taiyuan, 
the latter in the Fenchow prefectures, near the market- 
town of K'ai-Chia-Chen, the farmers attempted to resume 
the cultivation of the poppy. The then governor of the 
province, His Excellency Ting Pao-ch'iian, finding that the 
local officials were powerless to cope with the situation, sent 
a wellknown scholar and orator to plead with the people. 
This amicable method was unsuccessful, and the eloquent 
advocate was hustled out of the district. Then the governor 
sent troops to uproot the poppy plants and repress the rebel- 
lion of the people. A sharp fight followed in which about 
twenty farmers were killed, a good many others wounded, 
and several soldiers suffered severe wounds. However, the 
authorities triumphed, and the farmers abandoned the at- 
tempt to grow the poppy. This test case had been followed 
with keen interest throughout the entire province and its 
outcome had a salutary influence everjrwhere. For the 
sternness of his repressive measures Governor Ting lost his 
oflScial head, a result that he himself probably anticipated. 
He has since been living in retirement in the city of Shanghai. 

The influence of the K'ai-Chia-Chen affair was carried 



266 PAUL L. CORBIN 

over into the next year, 1911. The impression has been 
given in an earlier address in this conference (Hon. J. O. P. 
Bland, "The Suppression of the Opium Traffic") that the 
Chinese did not fully keep their agreement with Great Bri- 
tain in the matter of opium growing in 1911. I can speak 
only for Shansi, but my personal observation there includes 
the valleys of the Fen, Hsaio, K'ai, Wu-na, Liu Chih, and 
Yii Tao Rivers, as well as the district surrounding the great 
spring at Chin Ssu and the fertile valleys of the Pei Chwan 
in the extreme west of the province. All these were districts 
where formerly the poppy was extensively cultivated. No 
poppies were grown there in 1911. Careful inquiry in all 
sections of the province has elicited the information that 
everywhere the edict was enforced in 1911 as it had been in 
1909 and 1910. 

In the spring of this year, 1912, the people of Shansi 
took advantage of disturbed conditions in the country at 
large and sought to recoup themselves for the losses of the 
past three years by extensively planting the poppy. When 
I left the province about the first of May the poppy plants 
were just pushing their way through the surface of the 
ground. The province has, since the first of November 1911, 
been under a military government, headed by a Tutuh, 
Yen Hsi-shan. This provisional government will continue 
until after the general elections in January 1913. Early in 
the year General Yen put out a mandate forbidding the 
planting of the poppy, and threatening with punishment 
according to military law those who disregarded the man- 
date. This manifesto was in some districts preceded, in 
other districts accompanied or followed by strong proclama- 
tions on the part of the local officials. The people, however, 
disregarded the mihtary governor's orders and continued to 
water their poppy fields. In June, just before the poppy 
could yield its harvest, General Yen sent a special deputy, 
with mihtary escort, into the Chiao-Ch'eng district, not far 
from where the rioting had occurred in 1910. The farmers 
attacked this deputy, killed him, and wounded many mem- 
bers of his escort, at the same time burning the deputy's 
official residence. Troops were sent by Governor Yen, the 



INDUSTRIAL FUTURE OF SHANSI PROVINCE 267 

incipient rebellion was crushed with some loss of life, and 
the fields of poppies were destroyed. It is to be regretted 
that in other sections of the province the crop was allowed 
to come to harvest. But those who best understand the 
purposes of the new government are most certain that this 
backset in the opium reform in Shansi can be but temporary. 
For we should remember that General Yen's strong measures 
were employed at a time when the republic was not firmly 
established, and when his own position and the position of 
the central government at Peking was precarious. That 
he was willing to take such risks at such a time is surely an 
earnest of the purpose of the new government to fulfil with 
Great Britain the compact of the old government. 

After living for eight years in Shansi and carefully observ- 
ing the economic, physiological, and moral results of the 
cultivation and use of opium, I am prepared to say without 
any reservations that it is an evil and only an evil so far as 
the Chinese are concerned. A speaker in this conference 
quoted certain authorities (and in the quoting left the im- 
pression that he endorsed their views) as saying that opium- 
smoking indicates a racial tendency of the Chinese. As 
we consider this statement let us briefly review the history 
of opium in China. 

Previous to the famous T'ang dynasty the poppy was 
unknown to the Chinese. It is first mentioned in Chinese 
literature in the first half of the eighth century. At that 
time China had had intercourse with Arabia for about 
one hundred years. Its second mention in the literature of 
the country was by Kuo, a Shensi man, toward the end of 
the eighth century. The poet Yung Tao, a Szechuen man, 
about 900-906 wrote a poem describing the poppies growing 
near his home. I have mentioned the localities of these two 
writers because the provinces of Shensi and Szechuen later 
extensively cultivated the poppy. 

At first the Chinese used only the seeds, but four medi- 
cal writers, probably of the twelth century, refer to the use 
of the seed-pods, or capsules. In the thirteenth century 
three and in the fourteenth century one writer on medicine 
tell of a drug made from the capsule. When the petals have 



268 PAUL L. CORBIN 

fallen away from the seed-pod, and before the latter begins 
to harden, incisions are made in the pod with some sharp 
instrument, and the dark, viscous juice that oozes out is 
carefully gathered. That is the raw opium. Cutting the 
capsule in this way was first described by Wang Hsi, who 
died in 1488. He was governor of Kansuh Province for 
many years. There he saw a great many Mohammedans 
and learned from them of Arabia. By the end of the fif- 
teenth century the method of preparing opium was intro- 
duced to China by the Arabs. Li Ting in the middle of the 
sixteenth century gives an exact account of the preparation 
of the opium under the name a-fu-yung. (The Arabs took the 
Greek name, 6inov, and called it afyun. In China's coast 
provinces this was changed to ya-p'ien. But in Yunnan 
Province it is still referred to by officials as fu-yung, which is 
a-fu-yung without the prefix.) 

All this while opium was known only as a medicine. As 
such it is extremely valuable and has a place in the pharma- 
copeia of every civiUzed nation. We are dealing, however, 
with its misuse or abuse. Early in the seventeenth century 
the Spaniards introduced tobacco smoking to the Chinese. 
About the middle of the seventeenth century the use of 
opium mingled with tobacco was introduced by the Dutch. 
Opium was first smoked by itself (by the Chinese) probably 
near the end of the eighteenth century. The first edict 
forbidding the smoking of opium was issued by the Emperor 
Yung Cheng in 1729. Foreign opium (the prepared drug) 
was first introduced by the Portuguese at the beginning of 
the eighteenth century. The ilhcit trade in the drug was 
taken up by the British before the end of that century. In 
line with the Chinese resistance before and after that date 
the Emperor Chia Ch'ing in 1796 put forth an edict pro- 
hibiting the importation of the foreign drug. That the 
shameless smuggling continued, championed at last by 
Great Britain, is a matter of common understanding. So 
China learned of the poppy from the Arabs, was given the 
pipe by the Spaniards, was taught to mingle opium with 
tobacco in the bowl of the pipe by the Dutch, had the foreign 
drug brought to her by the Portuguese, and had the business 



INDUSTRIAI, FUTURE OF SHANSI PROVINCE 269 

in opium forced upon her by the British. Strange that so 
much foreign assistance should have been necessary in the 
discovery of a "racial tendency" in the Chinese! 

To recapitulate: the Chinese have known of the poppy 
for twelve centuries, have used opium as a medicine for nine 
centuries, have known of the method of securing raw opium 
from the capsule, or seed-pod, for six centuries, and have 
known of and practised smoking for considerably less than 
three centuries. China is an old country. She points with 
pride to an unbroken history of four thousand six hundred 
years. For three thousand four hundred years of that time 
she existed in bhssful ignorance of the fact that there was 
any such thing as opium. For more than four thousand 
three hundred years she failed utterly to reveal what Mr. 
Bland would have us believe is a "racial tendency." Surely 
in the light of such facts we may at least assume an attitude 
of what that gentleman describes as "suspended judgment" 
before accepting the suggestion that opium smoking indi- 
cates a "racial tendency" of the Chinese. 

Other lines along which help is needed are, instruction in 
seed selection, and in the problem of irrigation. The spring- 
fed mountain streams reaching the plains are diverted into 
ingenious and truly admirable systems of irrigating ditches. 
However, the mountains denuded of their forests frequently 
allow these streams to become, in the time of the summer 
rains, uncontrollable torrents that carry destruction instead 
of blessing to the villages of the plains. Reforestation will 
help in this matter, but there should also be an improvement 
in the system of irrigating canals, possibly through the con- 
struction of reservoirs, that will conserve the gifts of the 
summer rains and not allow them to rush into the lower 
reaches of the Yellow River carrying a wealth of loess soil as 
they go and leaving destruction in their train. Improve- 
ments are possible in the crops now produced in Shansi, 
both in kind and quality. There should be an extension of 
sericulture, for thousands of acres in the hills bordering the 
Yellow River are adapted to the production of the mulberry. 
The hemp, potatoes, and walnuts of the province should find 
ready markets at the coast were the problems of transporta- 



270 PAUL L. CORBIN 

tion not so great. The fundamental question, therefore, in 
the development of agriculture as of mineral resources is one 
of transportation. 

We take up now the manufacturing possibilities of the 
province. They may be suggested as we recapitulate some 
products of the region and mention a few others that have 
not yet been named. The existence of iron and coal fields 
side by side suggests the development of iron and steel 
foundries. Cotton and silk are both produced, and are now 
woven in primitive fashion in the homes of the peasants. 
Cotton mills and silk filatures are a possibility of the future. 
A large amount of excellent earthern and stone ware is 
turned out in simple kilns in several districts. This indus- 
try is capable of great expansion as the markets of the coast 
are brought nearer through improvements in transportation. 
The uplands, with their excellent oat straw, suggest possibili- 
ties in braid and paper, especially since there is an abundance 
of water power available. In Tan Ts'un in the Taijnian 
prefecture are kilns where glass is produced, some bottles 
of small size being blown, but the chief products being fragile 
toys and flimsy ornaments. "With modern machinery and 
methods this industry should be capable of development 
to commercial importance. Crude presses in many sections 
produce bean and hemp oil. Sheep and goat-skins and 
other hides are shipped in large quantities to America and 
Europe, especially France, but it surely will be possible, in 
the presence of a plentiful coal supply, abundant water power 
and cheap labor, to handle this raw product at home and 
export the manufactured article. Cordage, and willow and 
wicker ware, now manufactured in crude fashion and for 
local markets, give promise of great expansion, as there is an 
abundance of raw material and efficient labor. The vine- 
yards of the Taiyuan prefecture already produce an excellent 
quality of wine and this industry is capable of great growth 
as it shall receive intelligent and adequate attention. Other 
possible lines of manufacture will readily occur to one who 
is acquainted with the raw products of the province. We 
have not mentioned flour-milling, nor a score of other indus- 
tries now carried on by the Chinese. After all, we must 



INDUSTRIAL FUTURE OF SHANSI PROVINCE 271 

hark back to the question of transportation. Without 
cheap and adequate transportation none of these industries 
can be developed much beyond the point demanded by the 
necessities of the people of Shansi itself. With cheap and 
adequate transportation the possibilities stagger the imagi- 
nation. 

In closing a word should be said as to the possibilities in 
water-power in the mountains of the province. Numerous 
sparkling, spring-fed brooks and rivers of good volume invite 
the attention of the expert in hydraulics and suggest possi- 
bilities of industrial development even in districts where the 
coal supply is inadequate or inconvenient. This, in common, 
with the other possibilities mentioned above, sounds a 
challenge to the engineer, native and foreign, whose spirit 
of adventure responds to nature's call to unlock the doors of 
her treasure-houses and release the pent-up forces of her 
hills and valleys. 



SIR ROBERT HART AND HIS LIFE WORK IN CHINA 

By Edward B. Drew, A.M., Commissioner of Chinese Imperial 
Maritime Customs, retired. 

I propose to set before you, as best I may, the life work 
of Sir Robert Hart — a career which Professor Williams of 
Yale in his recent book on the Burlingame Mission pro- 
nounces ''the most remarkable and creditable of any Euro- 
pean, perhaps, in Asia during the (nineteenth) century." 

To this China-loving company I would present my late 
chief as one who served China with a life-time's unflagging 
devotedness; and to this body of students I offer his achieve- 
ments as a convincing example of that wholesome terrestrial 
kind of genius which is said to consist ''in days' works." 

Robert Hart was born in Portadown, County Armagh, 
in the north of Ireland, on February 20, 1835. He was 
the oldest of twelve children. His father Henry Hart was 
fairly well to do and a stern Wesley an; his mother, a daughter 
of Mr. John Edgar, was a tender woman who ever held the 
affections of her children. Not long after Robert's birth 
the family moved to Hillsborough where he attended his 
first school, and where the family home long remained. At 
the age of eleven he was sent for a year to a Wesleyan school 
in Taunton, England; his father taking him there in person. 
At Taunton he began the study of Latin; and Latin he 
delighted in and read to the end of his life, it being his daily 
custom to read some classic author while taking his morning 
tea. His next move was to the Wesleyan Connexional 
School at Dublin. Here he was graduated at the top of his 
class at the age of fifteen, with a reputation for love of mis- 
chief, as well as for studiousness and a brilliant mind. His 
solicitous father elected to send him to the new Queen's 

272 



SIR ROBERT HART AND HIS LIFE WORK 273 

University at Belfast, rather than to Trinity College, Dub- 
lin—preferring to keep his son near home where he might 
watch closely over his conduct and where pious influences 
should guard his character. 

In 1853, at the age of eighteen, young Hart received his 
B.A. degree. He had also taken scholarships and medals in 
literature and in logic, and had won the distinction of Senior 
Scholar. It was in this part of his career that he became a 
favorite student of McCosh, afterwards president of Prince- 
ton; and both Dr. McCosh and Sir Robert Hart ever re- 
called with pleasure their relations at this period, if indeed 
they did not actually correspond by letter so long as they 
lived. 

Before determining his choice of a profession. Hart began 
studying for the master's degree; but while he was thus 
engaged, an opportunity offered itself for competing for a 
junior post in the British government's consular service 
in China. He entered as a candidate; but so distinguished 
had been his university career that he was given the appoint- 
ment at once without examination. He arrived in China in 
1854, and continued for five years in the British consular 
service, gradually acquiring the Chinese language while 
serving at Hongkong, Ningpo and Canton, and becoming 
familiar with both the British and Chinese side of interna- 
tional relations. 

His early official experience was gained from the British 
governor of Hongkong, Sir John Bowring (well known by his 
noble hymns) and under such able consuls as Alcock, Thomas 
Taylor Meadows, and Parkes. For most of this period 
Hart's post was at Ningpo — near enough to the scene of 
the momentous events then enacting in China to excite the 
intensest interest of an observant, thoughtful and ambitious 
young man. The Taiping rebellion was in full career; the 
rebel leader had already been established at Nanking as his 
capital for a full year when Hart reached China; and from 
Ningpo he could observe the Taiping expeditions against 
Peking. In the study of these stirring times he must have 
found a stimulating example in his senior. Consul Meadows, 
who sympathised with the Taipings and in 1856 produced 



274 EDWARD B. DREW 

that still famous book The Chinese and their Rebellions. 
The period of his residence at Ningpo also covered for the 
most part the events at the neighboring treaty port, not 
200 miles away, when from 1853 to 1855, the "Small 
Swords," (an offshoot of the Taipings) seized and held the 
Chinese city of Shanghai. There and then were sown the 
seeds destined to produce but a few years later the "foreign" 
customs service so-called, with Hart himself presently as 
the chief — the guiding hand and the farseeing eye. At 
this period, too, occurred the Lorcha "Arrow" incident 
at Canton, followed by the quarrel between China and 
Britain, which developed in 1857-58 into the Lord Elgin 
mission, the seizure of Canton, the naval expedition to Tient- 
sin, and the great treaties of Tientsin of June, 1858. When 
Canton was taken by the British and French on New Year's 
day 1858, and the foreign allied commission was created to 
govern it. Hart was transferred from Ningpo, and made 
secretary to this commission. This gave him a new kind of 
training, and a rare opportunity to gain experience of Chinese 
life and thought and the principles of the Chinese govern- 
ment. His efficiency and promise at this time is exemplified 
by his memorandum (cited by Morse in International Rela- 
tions^), written early in 1859, while he was still interpreter 
to the British consulate at Canton, warning his chief, the 
British minister, Mr. Bruce, of the hostile preparations 
which the Chinese were then making to resist the expected 
British visit to Peking to exchange the ratifications of the 
treaty of the year before. Morse gives the details of this 
document, pronouncing it perhaps the most accurate fore- 
cast of the disastrous repulse of the British at the Taku forts 
which followed in June (1859). 

We have now reached the moment when Hart was about 
to enter upon what was to become the career of a long, 
devoted, and indefatigable life — as the builder and director 
of one of the most efficient administrative organisms, and 
perhaps altogether the most unique and peculiar — known to 
history. What he had gained, up to this time, was an equip- 

^ The International Relations of the Chinese Empire by Hosea Ballou Morse, 
Longmans Green and Company, 1910, p. 575. 



SIR ROBERT HART AND HIS LIFE WORK 275 

ment of varied China knowledge, office experience and official 
caution; what he had always possessed was unusual intellec- 
tual gifts, a fine memory, and a rare power of concentration. 
He had learned by competition with others that his abilities 
were considerable and that his acquired knowledge and pow- 
ers of observation were exceptional. In manner he was shy, 
unobtrusive, almost unsocial among strangers. He lacked 
the bearing of the self-confident leader; yet he surely knew 
that he had more ''brains" than most men, and need not 
distrust his powers. He had ambition, and, I doubt not, 
he had fully resolved within his own breast even now when 
only twenty-four that he could and would make a great career. 

The most definite accounts of the beginnings of the Chi- 
nese foreign customs service are those given by Morse in his 
Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire, chapter 
xii, and by Hart himself in a memorandum written in 1864, 
which is to be found in the British China Blue Book of 1865. 

In the fifties of the last century the European and Amer- 
ican trade and shipping in China were restricted by the 
government of that country, theoretically though not alto- 
gether in fact, to five cities on or near the coast. One of 
these "open ports" or ''treaty ports" so called, was Canton, 
another was Shanghai — and there were three minor places, 
Ningpo, Foochow, and Amoy. Here, naturally, were 
Chinese custom houses, managed by native officials com- 
missioned from Peking, who were aided by staffs of Chinese 
clerks, interpreters, duty calculators, goods examiners, 
watchmen, etc. Nominally the tariff rates were identical 
at all these places, for there existed a published tariff (on 
imports and on exports also); and nominally the methods 
of doing custom house business were identical in details at 
all the open ports. In practice, however, there was infinite 
variety, laxity, caprice and even corruption. Bribery or 
bullying of the Chinese customs officials was pretty common 
among the foreign merchants. These conditions made it 
impossible for the would-be honorable importer or exporter 
to compete with his less scrupulous rivals in trade without 
stooping to malpractices which he despised. This state of 
things, for which I find the nearest parallel of our own 



276 EDWARD B. DREW 

place and day in our dishonest system of taxation, is well 
depicted in Hart's memorandum of 1864 cited above. I 
remember that a reputable English merchant once described 
to me how in those lax times he had contrived, by means of 
bribes shrewdly distributed, to clear without charges a ship 
laden full of dutiable tea — reporting her at the customs as 
departing in ballast ! Many did this — must do it ; though the 
foregoing case was an extreme one. Thus the customs offi- 
cers got rich; while their government received far less revenue 
than it was entitled to. The demoralization was general, and 
the government seemed helpless to correct it. 

Now happened a sudden, rather trivial, event at a single 
Chinese port, which was destined within half a dozen j^ears 
to bring about a reform hitherto undreamt of, and to produce 
momentous and far-reaching consequences. 

The Taiping rebellion was in full career in central China, 
though it had not reached Shanghai. But one morning in 
1853, a secret sect of malcontents called the ''Small Swords" 
surprised and captured the walled native town of Shanghai. 
The custom house naturally fell into their hands; where- 
upon the collector, called the Taotai, took refuge with his 
staff and underlings outside the city in the suburb specially 
occupied by the European and American merchants, con- 
suls and traders. No recognition or sympathy was accorded 
to the ''Small Swords," nor were they permitted to enter 
the European settlement. It was then agreed between the 
consuls and the dispossessed Taotai that trade should not 
stop, nor should customs duties cease to be collected. 

In order to check the tendency towards collapse of the 
customs functions, and to safeguard the Chinese revenue, 
for which indeed the consuls felt themselves in a degree 
responsible — it seemed best that the Taotai should be sus- 
tained and reinforced in the discharge of his duty by a few 
foreigners of good standing, to be called inspectors and paid 
by him. Thus was born the foreign Inspectorate of customs 
— at Shanghai, in June, 1854. One of the first inspectors 
was Captain Wade, well known twenty years after as Sir 
Thomas Wade, the British minister. Within about a year 
Wade was succeeded by Mr. H. N. Lay, till then a British 



SIR ROBERT HART AND HIS LIFE WORK 277 

consular official. From 1855 Mr. Lay directed and developed 
the new organization for several years. Hart was yet to 
come. The foreign inspectorate, be it noted, was first estab- 
lished at Shanghai alone — not elsewhere. There it intro- 
duced a general reform of customs procedure. All the mer- 
chants were compelled to pay duty strictly according to 
tariff; and while some of them would have preferred the old 
game of risk and fraud, it was evident that with the new or- 
ganization lay the path of honesty and self-respect. At the 
same time the Chinese government for their part began to 
get a sure and steadily increasing revenue, with the foreign- 
ers' qualities of organization, vigilance, and probity in con- 
trol. The result was that towards the close of 1858, when 
the new and permanent commercial treaties were adopted 
under the lead of Lord Elgin, it was in set terms stipulated 
that the Chinese government might appoint of their own 
independent choice any foreigners (European or American) 
whom they wished, to assist them in the collection of their 
revenue, and that the new system — the foreign inspectorate 
— should be extended beyond Shanghai and made uniform 
at all the treaty ports. Laurence Oliphant, Lord Elgin's 
private secretary, in his delightful book Lord Elgin's Mis- 
sion,'^ justly anticipated that this stipulation might prove 
the most important of the new trade regulations. A few 
months after, viz., late in the spring of 1859, came the first 
step towards extension of the Shanghai system. The fam- 
ous and ancient customs port of Canton was to receive a 
semi-foreign administration on the Shanghai model; and the 
Chinese viceroy there, who knew young Hart favorably as 
the interpreter in the British consulate, invited him to initi- 
ate the service. Thereupon, the British government's con- 
sent have been obtained. Hart resigned the consular service 
and accepted the post of deputy commissioner (in America 
termed collector) in the Chinese imperial maritime customs 
at Canton — a Chinese office, under Chinese control repre- 
sented by Mr. Lay as the chief; and from that time till the 
day of his death in London in 1910— a period of fifty-one 

' Lord Elgin's Mission to China and Japan, by Laurence Oliphant, Harper, 
1860, p. 484. 



278 EDWARD B. DREW 

years — ^Robert Hart remained the devoted and loyal em- 
ployee of the government of China. It is interesting to 
recall here what Miss Juliet Bredon points out in her book 
The Romance of a Great Career (written while its subject was 
still living) : In accepting his resignation from the consular 
service in 1859 the British government cautioned young Hart 
that should he once leave its employ it would be vain for 
him to petition to reenter it, if he should subsequently desire 
to do so. Twenty-six years later the position was reversed 
when that government of its own accord offered to Sir 
Robert Hart the post of envoy extraordinary and minister 
plenipotentiary at Peking! 

In May, 1861, Mr. Lay went to England on leave of ab- 
sence, and Hart was promoted to fill his place as acting inspec- 
tor general. Mr. Fitzroy, the commissioner of customs at 
Shanghai, was to act conjointly with Hart, but as he was 
unacquainted with the Chinese language, the leadership 
fell inevitably into Hart's hands. The first thing to be done 
was to open customs offices according to the new model at 
those other treaty ports in which the old purely Chinese 
system had hitherto remained unchanged. Canton had 
been reformed in 1859, as I have already said; and in 1860 
the new form of office had been opened also at Swatow — 
the only one that year. Meanwhile the allies (British and 
French) were invading north China, taking Peking, and com- 
pleting by a supplementary treaty there the re-adjustment 
of their relations with China, which they mistakenly sup- 
posed they had finally accomplished two years before. 
After 1860 a long peace ensued with improved mutual under- 
standing. The foreign legations now established at the 
capital began by turning over a new leaf and taking a concili- 
atory, sympathetic, helpful, friendly attitude towards the 
Chinese government. The ministers, Bruce and Burlingame, 
maintained this policy with all their influence. China had 
had castigation enough; let her now practice the new lesson; 
grant her time to recuperate and patiently help her to accept 
and get used to the new conditions — to recover from the vio- 
lent wrench away from many time honored but evil traditions 
and methods to which she had been so harshly subjected. 



SIR ROBERT HART AND HIS LIFE WORK 279 

It was to be an era of good feeling, of leading, of hope, of 
economic revival. Now France and Britain even aided the 
imperial government in suppressing the Taipings in the 
region of Shanghai, Soochow and Nanking; and most justly 
too, for the ''coolie Kings" had sunk to the level of bandits 
and plunderers, and had quite forfeited the first expectations 
of a pure and honest regime for the peasantry of the Middle 
Kingdom. With Ward and Gordon as their lieutenants, and 
enjoying too the open sympathy of the British and French 
commanders in China, the leaders of the imperialist armies, 
Tseng and Li, restored the authority of the government 
between 1861 and 1863; and the great rebellion ended in 
July, 1864, with the recovery of Nanking, the Taipings' last 
stronghold. Hart fully shared the aims of all these leaders; 
he cooperated with them in the purpose of a pacific and pa- 
tient re-construction; he aided actively in persuading Gordon 
to take the field again after he had withdrawn in disgust 
when the rebel chiefs were executed at Soochow; and most 
of all he threw himself earnestly into his own special task 
of creating in the mixed (foreign and Chinese) service now to 
be developed an institution which China should perceive 
made for stability of government, encouragement of trade, 
increase of financial resources, and good will between native 
and foreigner. Early in 1861 the new customs institutions 
were opened at Chinkiang, Ningpo and Tientsin. The same 
year Hart opened offices at Foochow, and also at Hankow 
and Kiukiang on the Yangtsze. In 1862 he opened Amoy; 
in 1863 Chef 00 and two ports in Formosa, and lastly New- 
chwang (in Manchuria) in 1864. The tale of open treaty 
ports for foreign trade was now complete, with a custom 
house of cosmopolitan personnel in Chinese pay at each 
place. What was done in these formative years was Hart's 
work. Lay was absent from China between May, 1861 and 
May, 1863; and when he returned he remained only a few 
months. He was dismissed in November in consequence of 
the Lay-Osborn fleet dispute. He represented a dictatorial 
era which had expired, and even his own legation did not 
regret his departure. 

With his head office established in Peking, Hart threw 



280 EDWARD B. DREW 

himself unsparingly into the task of developing and perfect- 
ing the service but recently planted at the 14 ports of trade. 
He set himself to improving on the personnel engaged at the 
outset, educating all concerned to a better knowledge of 
their work, raising the general morale, and unifying the 
methods of procedure at the custom houses. The foreigners 
(by which term is meant Europeans and Americans) first 
employed had in some instances been emergency men picked 
up locally haphazard; some were even adventurers; some 
were too old to learn new duties, and to acquire the Chinese 
language; and a few were inferior socially and in education 
to the other foreigners about them occupied in commerce or 
in official life. A service thus partly manned with inferior 
material was regarded with disdain by the public, and Hart 
at once took steps to change all this. He sent to Europe 
and to America and secured young men of good birth and 
university education; these men he trained; he required them 
to learn Chinese; and he exacted absolute accuracy and 
efficiency in their office routine. Men who satisfied him 
he advanced rapidly in those early days, so that within 
half a dozen years the customs employees rose to a footing of 
social equality — or even better — with the men about them. 
At the same time Hart was unfailingly considerate in his 
treatment of deserving employees who could not attain to 
his standard for the highest posts. None were discharged 
because they were old; and to those of mediocre capacity 
were assigned posts where the work was what they were 
competent to do. 

The service was cosmopolitan; its strength lay partly in 
the fact that subjects of all the great powers were distributed 
through every grade. For example, in the custom house at 
Foochow, when under my charge some years ago, the com- 
miissioner was American, his senior deputy was French, 
and in the successive junior ranks were Germans, Scandina- 
vians, British and Japanese. Of course, in every office by 
far the largest number of employees were Chinese. The 
official languages were English and Chinese; in a few depart- 
ments only one of these, while in most departments, e.g., 
duty accounts and returns, statistics, expenditures, published 



SIR ROBERT HART AND HIS LIFE WORK 281 

reports on the trade, correspondence, etc., both Enghsh and 
Chinese were used. There was no fixed proportion of em- 
ployees determined for each nationality, but the patronage 
was based roughly on each country's commercial interest 
in the China trade. Britain had the largest share; America, 
Germany and France came next; and the service contained 
a lesser number of Danes, Italians, Japanese, Russians, 
etc. In the highest appointments, called commissionerships, 
and deputy commissionerships, of which there were in the six- 
ties some 20 and 12 respectively, nearly all these national- 
ities were represented, — though not in equal proportion; in 
1907 when the number of commissioners and deputy commis- 
sioners had risen, with the increased number of treaty or 
open ports, to so many as 37 and 25 respectively these posts 
were thus distributed, viz.. Of the 62 commissioners and 
deputy commissioners, 37 were British, 5 were American, 5 
were French, 5 were German, 3 were Russian, 1 was Danish, 

1 was Japanese, 1 was Italian, 1 was Dutch, 1 was Belgian, and 

2 were Norwegian. 

Hart never lost sight of the practical fact that the service 
must be cosmopolitan, and that there could be no favoritism 
as towards one nation or another. He was obliged to satisfy 
the Chinese foreign office — whose authority was the only 
superior he must recognize — that his selection of men, and 
distribution of appointments were just and could withstand 
the possible complaint or displeasure of each and every 
Legation. The Chinese foreign office gave Hart absolute 
control of the service; he would brook no interference with 
his power and responsibility. The foreign ministers some- 
times tried to interfere, or sometimes complained; certainly 
this happened in an exasperating form in the early years of 
Hart's career, before his prestige had been established— when 
it was hard for him to maintain his ground. But as time 
went on his confidence and authority grew greater; and while 
he had always to be circumspect and to have sound reasons 
for his selections and promotions, he took his own way and 
the foreign ministers preferred to leave these things to his 
fairness and judgment. It is true to say that in his official 
acts, and from his official viewpoint Hart was first and fore- 



282 EDWARD B. DREW 

most a Chinese official, second cosmopolitan, and never 
partial towards his own nationality. Nor do I think that 
with the vast patronage which he exercised — ^was compelled 
to exercise — for nearly fifty years, he was ever influenced 
against, or in favor of a man by prejudice due to nationality. 

The organizing work done by Hart in the decades of the 
sixties and seventies was as immense in amount and impor- 
tance as it was varied in nature. And then, as subsequently, 
he did most of it himself alone. Before 1864, i.e., while he 
was instituting the offices from Canton in the south to New- 
chwang in the north, he visited in person the places concerned, 
became acquainted with his men — chiefs and juniors — and 
arranged matters by personal interviews with the local Chi- 
nese officials. These officials naturally had but a dim com- 
prehension of his purposes, or of their correct relation to 
the new '' foreign' ' customs, as they termed it; while they 
were amply equipped with anti-foreign distrust, far from 
unwarranted. Hart had to meet and overcome this feeling, 
as best he might; and he had also to impress upon his Euro- 
pean stafTs and their native territorial colleagues what their 
relative powers, duties, and responsibilities were, and what 
mutual relations they would be expected to cultivate. 
Indeed, he had to depend on his own thinking and foreseeing 
brain for his plans and opinions, and then to teach subordi- 
nates to act accordingly. Before him at the outset was only 
a clean slate — a new institution of vast potential develop- 
ment to be reared, its future uncertain and himself alone the 
architect. But he had imagination, confidence, vision, — 
and he went forward, seldom hesitating or looking back. 

In 1864 he made Peking his permanent headquarters, 
directing and organising the distant offices by correspondence 
from the capital, while in close personal touch with the Chi- 
nese foreign office and with the legations. The new system, 
not obstructive to trade, but managed simply and without 
corruption, brought in a yearly growing revenue which in 
amount surprised as well as rejoiced the Peking exchequer, 
— and made the service and its head persona grata with the 
central government, however inwardly ill-disposed were the 
native local officials at the ports, whose time-honored "rake 



SIR ROBERT HART AND HIS LIFE WORK 283 

off" it had strangled. By 1866, the indemnities for the war 
of 1858-60 had been paid off — and from the customs reven- 
ues; whereupon the Chinese foreign office announced its 
satisfaction with the service and its purpose to prolong it 
indefinitely. The tariff was very low — a basis of only 5 
per cent, levied at specific rates both on imports and exports. 
China was precluded by the foreign powers from raising it; 
indeed it has been changed but little down to this day. Yet, 
with the increase which has taken place in the number of 
open ports of trade, and the natural growth of China's com- 
merce, the annual collection has risen from 8,500,000 taels in 
1864 to 35,500,000 taels in lOlO.^ This gain is due in part 
to the addition of new departments of customs collecting 
work handed over to Hart from time to time; — indeed even 
a part of China's internal revenue both from opium and from 
general commodities has been entrusted to the foreign cus- 
toms for management, for several years. China was never 
niggard with the inspector general in the grant of funds for 
the cost of collection; on the other hand he rendered accurate 
quarterly and annual accounts of what was spent. The 
government did not criticise the rates Hart fixed for salaries 
and wages, nor the allowances he chose to issue for rent, 
travel, leaves of absence, etc. All these things down to the 
wages of the lowest office messengers and boatmen were 
determined absolutely by regulations which he himself made 
— as one of the many features of his organization. A pro- 
fessional accountant was engaged from the treasury in Lon- 
don, who came to China, studied the conditions, drafted a 
complete system of accounts-keeping rules, and made a 
tour of all the ports instructing the commissioners and 
clerks in details, and opening the books. The system then 
established continues in force — with but few changes — 
today. Hart himself, with characteristic sense of responsi- 
bility and capacity for detail, maintained a fixed custom of 
requiring the books in which the service general accounts 
were summarised and kept up to date in the audit depart- 
ment at Peking, to be brought to him every Saturday for 

» One tael equals about 66 cents, United States currency, 1910. 



284 EDWARD B. DREW 

examination. It was amazing his grasp of details, and the 
time and minute personal attention he freely gave to every 
branch of the service affairs. The undying tale that the 
Chinese government gave him an allowance of so much with 
which he was to run the service — keeping the unspent bal- 
ance for himself — is not true. He accounted for all he 
spent, and as for himself he received a fixed salary — probably 
the same as that of his predecessor, Mr. Lay, which Mr. 
Andrew Wilson, author of the Ever Victorious Army tells 
us was £8000. If this was Hart's salary, every penny of 
it was well earned. There never was higher loyalty, com- 
pleter self devotion, or more splendid ability placed at the 
service of an employer — or with better results. As the 
customs grew in variety of functions, extent of field, amount 
of collections, and number of personnel, Chinese and foreign, 
the annual grant from the government for its maintenance 
was increased at intervals. The story is told that some 
native official once memorialised the government to the 
effect that the service was costing too much under Hart's 
regime and that he himself, the memorialist, would under- 
take to carry it on with a far smaller appropriation. This 
memorial was passed on by the foreign office to Hart for his 
answer. He replied by declaring, that so far from admitting 
that the present grant was too great, he must point out that 
it had become too small, and concluded his despatch by 
soliciting an increase of so and so much in the annual allow- 
ance! The result was what he had expected: the grant was 
increased ! 

I have mentioned the thoroughness — reaching to all 
details — with which his early organizing work was done. 
One aim was to create uniformity at all the offices. Calling 
for lists of the employees of every description from every 
port, he classified, ranked, and graded them — fixing the 
pay of each grade. Then was published the first service 
list, to be followed yearly by a fresh list showing the enroll- 
ment, rank, nationality and station of every man — the series 
affording a history not merely of each man's career but of 
the growth of the organization as the years rolled by. A 
system, a piece of machinery like this, once instituted was 



SIR ROBERT HART AND HIS LIFE WORK 285 

never dropped or permitted to deteriorate in quality or 
accuracy or in the variety and fulness of records it afforded. 
On the other hand it was modified and steadily improved as 
circumstances demanded changes. At present the list is 
issued in both English and Chinese. The natural require- 
ments of a large constituency of intelligent merchants were 
met by the publication quarterly of statistics of the separate 
imports and exports of trade at each and all the ports, of the 
movement of treasure, and of shipping. Annually, complete 
volumes of similar, but more elaborate, statistics are issued, 
— accompanied by reports on the trade of each port written 
by the local commissioners, and by a general report on the 
trade of China as a whole, drawn up by the statistical secre- 
tary. In point of clearness, completeness and typography, 
these annual volumes leave little to be desired. They are 
published both in English and in Chinese, — and may be 
found in several of the great libraries of our own country as 
well as of Europe. And, what is more valuable to the gen- 
eral student, and deserves to be known better than it is 
known. Hart caused to be published at the close of each 
decade beginning with the period 1881-1890 a collective 
volume of Decennial Reports, embracing each port and its 
surrounding district, prepared by the several commissioners, 
detailing — according to a systematized arrangement drafted 
by Hart himself — the history and development during the 
decennium, of the port's industries, trade, governmental 
affairs, productions, etc., and recording all important events, 
improvements, and the like, accompanied by maps, and as 
a whole constituting an invaluable record for the student of 
the modern and modernising Middle Kingdom. 

Little escaped Hart's indefatigable hand — little that could 
enhance the value of the customs service to China or to the 
public. Concise books of instructions in their duties were 
drawn up and distributed to the employees; instructions for 
the commissioners and their assistants, instructions for the 
heads of the outdoor department, for the examiners of goods, 
and for the watchers of shipping — all aiming to teach each 
man how to perform his work, what he should and what he 
should not do. These instructions improved the discipline 



286 EDWARD B. DREW 

and efficiency of the staffs, and ensured a liberal, courteous, 
and helpful attitude on the part of custom clerks and exam- 
iners in dealing with travellers and with the stationary com- 
mercial public who had duties to pay. It was a fixed prin- 
ciple with Hart — understood by every man in the service, 
high or low — that each employee ought to be enabled to know 
clearly what was expected of him; and, with this known, men 
must be held strictly to doing it. Those who fell short were 
sure to hear of it promptly and emphatically; those who 
did well, even the humblest, were rewarded with promotion 
when the right time and place came; while such as showed 
exceptional fitness were culled out and advanced to the most 
responsible posts. A system of semi-annual confidential 
reports on the personnel was instituted in 1868, and always 
maintained; indeed Hart never revoked an ordinance which 
he had once instituted — he would modify after trial and 
experience, but he never repealed. 

The service steadily grew larger, as international crises 
arising from time to time were settled by the opening of 
new ports so-called, i.e., new points of trade and contact, 
many of them at interior or at land frontier towns. But 
the service was never too big for Hart to manage. The 
Chefoo convention of 1876 with Britain, which settled the 
Margary murder, provided for the opening of Wenchow, 
Pakhoi, Wuhu, and Ichang (and of Chungking later) on the 
Upper Yangtsze. The Tongking imbroglio with France in 
1884-85 was followed by the opening of Lungchow, and 
Mengtsz in remote Kwangsi and in Yunnan on China's 
southern frontier. The defeat of China by Japan in 1895 
led to the opening of the large cities of Soochow and Hang- 
chow. The war between Japan and Russia in 1905 had for 
one of its results the opening of Harbin, Antung, Mukden, 
etc., in the three provinces — still Chinese — of Manchuria. 
The enlargement of customs work thus entailed, of staffs and 
correspondence, and the increased distances from Peking, 
were not too formidable for Hart's organization to cope with; 
he seemed always to have spare men of all grades ready to 
go out and begin work on the well known lines at new 
points. The trained men required, he always had ; and vacant 



SIR ROBERT HART AND HIS LIFE WORK 287 

places at the older ports were speedily replenished with 
recruits from his waiting list — a list kept close at hand and 
from which he could draw by a telegram to London. Here 
was a special agency of the Chinese customs, efficiently and 
loyally directed by Mr. James Duncan Campbell — who had 
been in China in the service, than whom a more competent 
man could not have been found. All candidates of what- 
ever nationality had to pass Campbell's tests and personal 
scrutiny before they could obtain enrollment as suitable. 
Similar care was also taken in China in selecting the large 
number of native recruits who filled the clerkships. Thus, 
when new demands arose, even suddenly, the service was 
elastic enough to meet them. 

There is one other feature of the organization which I 
may not fail to mention — the practice of transferring clerks, 
assistants, commissioners, and even examiners and inspectors 
(i.e., the "out-door men") from one port to another every 
few years. These transfers took place in considerable num- 
ber each spring; so that every man after ten or fifteen years 
would have served at several ports in different parts of 
China, and, with the exception of the commissioners alone, 
would have worked under a variety of chiefs, and in a variety 
of climates. The advantages of this practice were many. 
It was only fair to men who had lived three or four years in 
the enervating south, that they should be given a change to 
the north, or that men who had endured the rather solitary 
existence of a small out of the way place in mid-China 
should be enabled to exchange the hardships of social stagna- 
tion for the joys of a bustling community like Shanghai or 
Hankow. Further, it was just to all under a system by which 
(as I have said above) every employee's merits and deficien- 
cies were semi-annually reported confidentially to the inspec- 
tor general, that the employee should be reported upon 
by a succession of different chiefs; so that the inspector 
general might form his judgment of a man upon the estimates 
of several commissioners and not on the opinion of only one 
or two. The practice of frequent transfers increased the 
men's experience, maintained their interest in their work, 
and tended to unify procedure at all the ports; while affording 



288 EDWARD B. DREW 

an easy path for removing quietly men who could not work 
with certain colleagues or who were unsuitable to the local 
community. Referring to my own experience I may say 
that my life in China was far more pleasant, and my work 
was done with more zest, in that I served for three or four 
or five years, not longer, at each of eight different stations — 
from Peking to Canton, and from Shanghai to Kiukiang. 
One feature of the customs organization was the statistical 
department, established at the central port of Shanghai. 
This establishment combined the two functions of (1) pub- 
lication plus printing, and (2) the assembling and compilation 
of trade statistics and reports. Under a chief possessing 
Hart's imagination and incapable of finding any kind of work 
deary or uninviting, the statistical department was a most 
interesting field — by no means what our American name 
' 'Government Printing Office" somehow signifies to me. The 
head manager, known as the statistical secretary, not 
merely printed and distributed the regular returns and 
reports to the mercantile and official public; it was one of 
his tasks to receive and inspect the ports' quarterly official 
statements of revenue collected, and of expenditures. These 
documents had to be drawn up four-fold in both English 
and Chinese — a set from each port — and were passed on to 
the Chinese treasury and to the foreign office. They were 
elaborate and detailed; and Hart would not tolerate the least 
flaw, or error, untidiness or carelessness of form in the prep- 
aration of a single one of them. These documents if not 
correct and perfect in form were invariably returned swiftly 
to the office of issue, to be replaced by fresh ones. Hart 
never accepted less by a hair than what he had required. 
The result was that the Chinese foreign office received from 
him nothing that was ill-done; and the Chinese principle 
is — in theory at least — that a careless report made to a 
superior office is a breach of propriety, a want of respect. 
The published Yellow Books from the statistical department 
are models of care, taste, completeness and good workman- 
ship; because Hart would accept nothing less. More than 
this: he encouraged such of his subordinates as might choose 
to write monographs on China subjects, to do so, and these 



SIR ROBERT HART AND HIS LIFE WORK 289 

if meritorious were published for sale or for distribution. A 
paper on Chinese music, a collection of Chinese terms and 
phrases gathered by some ambitious employee in a wide and 
patient reading of the native literature, or a minute and 
accurate descriptive list of the thousand and one articles 
which comprise China's trade : many such useful works Hart 
published, as a credit to their authors and a distinction to 
the service. He also published volumes of special reports, 
for example, one on silk, another on tea, others on opium, 
etc. ; or again a collection of China's treaties giving all the 
texts in which they were drawn up, taken from the official 
copies. Many successive volumes of medical reports on 
diseases in China, made semi-annually by European physi- 
cians practising in different parts of that country were issued 
by his direction. A broad minded man he furthered every- 
thing of value to China, which came within the scope of his 
control. 

The provision of aids to navigation such as lighthouses, 
lightships, buoys, beacons, etc., for the benefit of China's 
sea, riverine and harbor shipping was early placed by the 
Chinese government in his hands with full powers. Engag- 
ing expert engineers, and consulting the navigators them- 
selves familiar with the coast of China, he first drew up a 
lighthouse building program extending through a series of 
years. Only the best illuminating methods of their time 
were introduced. And to this day the dangerous China 
coast is so well lighted and marked that — as Hart once 
expressed it — "navigation has been made as easy as walking 
down Regent Street when the gas is lit." He seemed to lose 
sight of no detail during the years when this work was being 
done; among other things insisting that wherever possible 
the materials used on a lighthouse, the workmen, and such 
current supplies as food and boats should be those to be 
obtained on the spot, — the aim being to convert the naturally 
suspicious, prejudiced or even hostile sea-coast population 
to a feeling of confidence and good will. In 1908 when Sir 
Robert Hart left China, the customs service was maintain- 
ing 132 lighthouses and lightships, not to mention many 
buoys and beacons or the steamers required to visit, inspect 



290 EDWARD B. DREW 

and supply them. In these matters, as in everything he 
touched Hart was thorough, studying and directing details 
himself, and taking a deep interest of a personal kind in all 
that he had to do. He selected the lightkeepers, he chose 
the officers of the lightships and light-tending steamers — 
taking infinite pains to appoint just the men who would be 
contented with their billets and would by nature suit the 
work best. On one occasion, for instance, on a tour of the 
light houses he observed that a certain lightkeeper had given 
much attention to breeding and keeping a variety of domes- 
tic animals for the love of it, whereupon he transferred the 
man to a post on a large island — where he might keep bigger 
flocks and more poultry and teach the islanders how to rear 
and care for them. 

Beyond these varied activities which belonged to his 
recognized duties and responsibilities as head of the customs 
many others of an extraneous kind were imposed upon him 
and upon the customs service by the Chinese government. 
A commission of enquiry was sent to Cuba and Peru to 
report on the condition and treatment of Chinese coolie 
laborers in those countries. Two commissioners of customs 
accompanied and guided this mission; with the beneficent 
result that the condition of these wretched beings was per- 
manently alleviated by diplomatic action. The work of 
assembling Chinese products and manufactures and the 
exhibition of them as the Chinese government's displays at 
the successive world's fairs, Vienna in 1873, Philadelphia in 
1876, Paris in 1878 and 1900, BerUn (fisheries) in 1880, and 
New Orleans (cotton) in 1883, these tasks were assigned to 
Hart to be managed by the customs service. Other special 
missions and frontier delimitation, were also entrusted to 
Hart and his subordinates. 

Besides these extraordinary occasions of international 
duty to be performed, there were international gales to be 
weathered, or opportunities to be improved. Here Hart's 
advice was sometimes sought by the Chinese ministers, owing 
to his confidential relations with them. This was a special 
kind of service, quite outside the limits of his ofiice as 
inspector general; and it must have been fraught with no 



SIR ROBERT HART AND HIS LIFE WORK 291 

slight anxieties and perplexities. It was not Hart's nature, 
indeed it would have been most unwise, unasked to volunteer 
suggestions beyond his recognised functions. But he was 
not infrequently consulted in critical entanglements; and 
for negotiation he possessed taste and skill. One would have 
thought his regular work as much as one man could do — 
especially with his high standard of quality; but Hart aspired 
to lead China into the path of progress, to help her in the 
way of safety, to shield her from aggression and from the 
perils of partition which repeatedly threatened in conse- 
quence of her blind conservatism, or obstructiveness, or weak- 
ness, or fatuous blunders. Early in the sixties he was over- 
joyed by her seeming advance towards Occidental education 
promised by the creation of the Tung Wen Kuan Colleges 
at Peking and at Canton. But through ill causes which Hart 
could not stem, these institutions lapsed into discouraging 
stagnation and uselessness; and yet, as I know from my own 
correspondence with him when I was stationed at Canton, he 
refused to accept my belief that the college there was beyond 
hope. As Mr. Ku Hung-ming declared, ''The great man is 
always an optimist;" and Hart based his unconquerable 
hope for the future of these schools on the slender fact that 
they had indeed turned out in three decades two or three 
able men whom he was proud to name. He lived on the 
tiptoe of expectation that some miracle would occur or some 
heaven-sent prophet would arise to fling wide the doors of 
reform. He was delighted in 1866 with the appointment 
of the humble secretary of the foreign office, Mr. Pin, to ac- 
company him as a semi-official envoy to Europe ; he hoped that 
even this might be the ''dawn," though indeed it was not 
much "like thunder." The times were not ripe for China's 
awakening, but this event — come when it might — could 
never have surprised him; and for my part I would fain have 
witnessed his content when at last after the Boxer fanaticism 
came the deep and sincere reaction, the popular regeneration 
in favor of modern education, followed — after the Russo- 
Japanese war — by genuine reforms in government, police, 
military affairs, the press, and opium abolition, in a word a 
new national birth. 



292 EDWARD B. DREW 

I well recall, for I witnessed it, the joyous hope which 
animated him, when the Burlingame mission was sent forth 
in 1868; nor indeed was that enterprise without lasting advan- 
tage for hard-pressed China. She needed time, sympathy 
and consideration from western powers — and this respite 
from relentless pressure Anson Burlingame gained for her 
in Europe, while Hart then and later clung to the same policy 
in Peking. 

History, I think, will give to him a share of the credit for 
preventing war with Britain in 1876, after the Margary 
murder, at the very last moment — ^when hostilities seemed 
inevitable; and nine years later it was his resourcefulness, his 
boldness, his unfaltering perseverance, even his ingenuity, 
that brought to an abrupt and surprising end the wearisome 
and exhausting hostilities of 1884-85 known as the Tongking 
imbroglio. The tale is a dramatic one, but it is too long and 
the plot is too complex to be related here. The seizure by 
the French admiral of the little steamer Feihoo of the 
Chinese customs was Hart's opportunity. Miss Bredon 
tells the story, thought too superficially; but Hart was still 
living when her book appeared. Through the French min- 
ister Hart tried to get the steamer released. The minister 
was lukewarm; only the admiral could return the steamer — 
better apply in Paris. Then the drama secretly developed. 
Hart had caught from M. Patenotre and Admiral Courbet 
an extremely slender thread. But it was Ariadne's thread 
— he seized it silently, instantly, and in a few months he led 
both China and France out of a labyrinth from which they 
longed (France no less than China) to be freed — yet within 
whose intricacies both had become hopelessly lost. To Paris 
he sent the customs' London secretary, the cautious loyal 
Campbell, who had much shrewdness of his own and pos- 
sessed an abounding faith in Hart. Secretly Campbell 
applied to Monsieur Ferry for the rendition of the insignifi- 
cant little steamer — and presently he drew from his pocket 
no less mysteriously some telegrams from his Peking chief 
— proposing terms for a protocol of peace. Ferry trusted 
them — he knew the reputation of Sir Robert Hart and the 
influence he wielded at the Chinese court. Hart was act- 



SIR ROBERT HART AND HIS LIFE WORK 293 

ing with the support of the foreign office. Ferry accepted 
the terms, but before they were formally signed came a 
sudden Chinese success in arms at Langson. This threw 
things once more into confusion; Ferry's ministry fell in a 
tumult; ''France must reinforce, continue the war, and 
recover her prestige," cried everybody; while the war party 
in China again grew aggressive and confident. Hart's 
unsuspected negotiations hung trembling in the balance. 
There was a brief interval of anxiety, but for him never 
despair. Presently, he triumphed; the peace protocol was 
signed. France had receded from her demand for an indem- 
nity, the chief point worth China's fighting; while China 
dropped her claim — morally just (though shadowy to all 
practical purposes) — to the suzerainty of Tonking. This one 
achievement was worth to China many times what Hart and 
his liberally endowed customs service — had they done noth- 
ing else — ever cost her. As a spice of personal revenge on 
the French minister and admiral for their cavalier pettiness 
in this Feihoo matter — it must have been sweet to the 
inspector general, while it was free of vindictiveness and did 
a great service to both countries. The minister knew noth- 
ing of what was going on till he was startled by the news 
that peace had been signed by Mr. Campbell and a French 
official in Paris!* 

The year 1885 was one of the most momentous and most 
glorious of Hart's career. While the French negotiation 
filled his thoughts, he was startled by a telegram from the 
foreign office in London tendering him the appointment of 
British minister. It came from the Liberal Granville cabi- 
net; and when, immediately after, the Conservatives came in 
into power, the offer was renewed by Lord Salisbury. To 
the public it seemed inexplicable that the British govern- 
ment should choose as the guardian of its interests a man who 
had become the exponent of the Chinese view of political 
questions at Peking. But there are some who declare that 

* It is to be regretted that in her attractive book already referred to 
Miss Bredon should have permitted herself to put an insulting slur upon the 
memory and the services of Mr. Campbell in her account of this dramatic 
negotiation. Sir Robert Hart himself would have been the very last to 
countenance an act of this kind. 



294 EDWARD B. DREW 

the British government's general instructions to its ministers 
— perhaps from about this time — used to contain for their 
final injunction the advice, — ''When in doubt, consult Sir 
Robert Hart." 

At first Hart accepted the appointment; it must have 
seemed to him to promise a fine culmination of his career, 
the summit of his ambition. But after a few weeks he deter- 
mined to decline the proffered honor, and to remain as he 
had so long been, the inspector general or ''I. G." — the head 
of the imperial customs. Exactly why he chose this course 
I can only conjecture. He may have foreseen his liability 
to be forced into an attitude of hostility towards the Chinese 
government, whom he had so long sympathetically served. 
Perhaps he apprehended the possible coldness or unfriendli- 
ness of the British consuls, whom he would have to direct 
and on whose assistance he must depend. But I do not 
believe that these were the reasons which determined his 
decision. I think he shrunk from abandoning a post for 
which he knew he was well fitted — from ceasing his efforts to 
lead and help China as her employee and adviser; and further 
that he could not endure to see the great service which he 
had so industriously built up out of his own brain, and with 
such unremitting toil, devotion and hope, fall into hands 
perhaps less devoted and less capable than his own. At all 
events the announcement that he had decided to continue 
to be their inspector general, was welcomed enthusiastically 
by the customs men everywhere. An address of congratula- 
tion was presented to him by the service. 

There yet lay before him almost a quarter of a century 
which Hart was destined still to devote to China. The first 
great measure to demand his attention was the transference 
of the collection of the internal revenue tax (or ''Likin") 
on opium from the native inland coUectorates to the foreign 
customs offices. It was purely an administrative customs 
business, but the problem was intricate, the revenue at 
stake amounted to millions, and the change must be made at 
all places on the same fixed day, close at hand. A single 
error in the instructions given to the customs offices might 
entail troublesome complaints from Chinese officials, or 



SIR ROBEET HART AND HIS LIFE WORK 295 

outcry and "claims" from opium importers; it might pro- 
duce irremediable confusion. Here was precisely the kind 
of operation that the inspector general delighted to under- 
take. The procedure was complicated; the readjustment 
radical. Of the opium affected the new customs treatment 
had to be differentiated according to the precise stage of 
taxation which each several lot had reached on the crucial 
day. At the same time a fresh system had to be devised and 
set in motion, which should be applied in future to all opium 
arriving. Written instructions — there was barely time to 
circulate them to the ports before they must be acted on. 
But like all Hart's directions , these were orderly, clear, 
precise; by telegraph from Peking he dealt no less promptly 
and clearly with such special difficulties as arose here and 
there, and in a day the changed system was in calm opera- 
tion. The new opium Likin scheme was a masterpiece of 
able administration. 

Next followed the Tibetan or Sikkim question, involving 
negotiations between Peking and the Indian government. 
These were conducted chiefly by Sir Robert Hart by tele- 
graph, in addition of course to his regular work, which of 
itself was onerous enough. He now purposed returning 
to England, and began the necessary preparations. Yet the 
moment seemed never to come when he could safely leave 
his post. The Chinese- Japanese war broke out in 1894-95; 
of course he would not ask leave of absence at such a junc- 
ture. Next came the opening of the West River to trade; 
and after that the strife for concessions among the European 
legations in Peking became most menacing — the actual 
partition of China was begun. The coup-d'etat of 1898 
followed — and Hart was still in Peking, no possibility of 
leaving China at so critical a time! In this way year fol- 
lowed year, with the faithful inspector general still at his 
desk striving to save what he could of China's tattered sov- 
ereignty, and at all events successfully holding her invaluable 
revenue service steady and unshaken on its course. Lady 
Hart with her children had returned from Peking to England 
in 1882; but how could the inspector general hope to join 
them while China was in such dire straits? 



296 EDWARD B. DREW 

So far from dropping his task, Hart even took on in 1897 
a new enterprise of mammoth proportions — the creation 
of a postal service to be gradually extended over the entire 
empire. The foreign office memorialized the throne in 
advocacy of this proposal; the emperor issued an edict of 
approval. On Hart's confident and willing — if overburdened 
— shoulders was laid this immense task. He was made in- 
spector general of posts. Up to this time China had no 
conception of a national post office functioning everywhere. 
The Chinese had known hitherto only petty express agencies, 
private letter-carrying "shops," operating on a few main 
routes, for comparatively high charges. Vested interests 
must be handled tenderly, else popular hostility would be 
aroused, and the new scheme would instantly forfeit the 
support of a timid government and of a luke-warm public 
opinion. At the outset there was to be expected little or no 
financial aid from the impoverished indemnity-ridden Chi- 
nese exchequer. And a staff of postal men must be organized 
— Chinese and European — and the many novices taught their 
work. The appropriations devoted to the customs establish- 
ments were made to bear the new expenditures — being 
treated in the accounts as advances to be refunded when the 
postal service after some years should have become a success, 
and should have obtained fiscal appropriations of its own. 
Customs men, customs buildings, customs funds everywhere 
were most liberally and fully devoted to the new develop- 
ment — in addition to their time honored regular uses. 
There was no other way. That quality of elasticity to which, 
as I have said before, Hart had early habituated the service 
which he had built up, was now subjected to its severest 
tension. But Hart could generally command a loyalty 
akin to his own, and he never hesitated to exact obedience. 
He had always required his foreign employees to study the 
Chinese language and customs; and besides these the ser- 
vice possessed within its ranks very many native clerks of 
thorough office training and of no small acquaintance with 
English. Upon this loyalty and fitness Hart drew copiously. 
Within a few years the coasting and riverine steamers, and 
the few railways had become China's contract mail carriers. 



SIR ROBERT HART AND HIS LIFE WORK 297 

From every open port radiated mail routes into the interior, 
served according to local conditions by boats, by mules, by 
couriers on foot. Gradually the great interior provinces 
were covered with a net work of postal routes. The largest 
offices were placed in charge of such men as had demon- 
strated most interest, ability, and general fitness for their 
work. Hart's watchfulness and that of his chief lieutenants 
at headquarters was never relaxed. At length the central 
and the provincial governments became full converts and 
sincere supporters of the national post office, and grants in 
aid where necessary were made. Today China regards the 
postal service as no less essential to the life and business of 
the nation than it is elsewhere over the globe. It is no 
longer dependent on the mother service, but has its own 
separate existence. In 1912 there were over 6000 postal 
establishments, with 127,000 miles of courier connections, 
and the service dealt with 421,000,000 of postal articles.^ 

How shall one speak adequately of that cruel summer of 
1900 when China's so loyal helper was suddenly entrapped, 
together with the entire Peking foreign community in the 
onrushing tempest of the Boxer fanaticism? True, Hart 
foresaw the approach of peril but he misjudged the time of 
the outburst. He had taken steps to prepare his Peking 
staff for sending away wives and children as the danger 
increased, but he was too late! The German minister was 
murdered. Behold the Boxers within the city gates, sweep- 
ing all before them — burning and slaughtering. The little 
community was at bay fighting for life. Like all others, 
Hart left his house and his invaluable papers, the offices with 
their archives of fifty years, and sought refuge in the legation 

^ It may be taken as probable that Hart's success in creating and more 
especially in extending the postal service by gradual steps until it covered 
the empire, led directly to the conviction in his own mind that the sorely 
needed reorganization, reform and purification of the national land tax might 
be accomplished in a similar way. And it is not at all unlikely that his 
published Land Tax Proposals, though negatived when they were made, will 
yet be adopted in principle if and when the present Chinese government 
feels itself strong enough to grapple with the subject. But it requires 
almost "the gestation of a thousand years" to produce a man of Hart's 
experience, devotedness, and energy — fit to achieve so Herculean a task. 



298 EDWARD B. DREW 

area. He took with him only a small roll of blankets, and a 
few clothes. Strangely enough, he believed that the cus- 
toms premises would be spared because they belonged to 
the government! In fact, they were speedily with their 
contents burned to the ground. At the beginning of the 
siege Hart had little hope that the foreigners could be saved. 
To me at Tientsin he sent by a trusty coolie, who took his 
life in his hand to bring the note, this desperate touching 
message written in ink on a small scrap of paper; what 
volumes it speaks ! 

Legations ordered to leave Peking in 24 hours!!! — R. H. 

19 June, 1900. 4 p. m. Good bye! 

Pay bearer Tls. 100.— R. H. 

Drew, 

Customs, 
Tientsin. 

I need not dwell on the thrilling tale of the eight weeks 
that followed. For the hard pressed Europeans it is a 
story of suffering, of horror, of death, of wondrous fortitude, 
of unflinching tenacity and courage. The world's history 
affords few examples of equal heroism displayed by women 
and by men. Sir Robert, then in his sixty-sixth year, was 
too old to take his place rifle in hand in the muddy trenches 
or behind the sand bags; but his confidence, his Irish good 
humor were conspicuous among the besieged; and the spec- 
tacle of his serenity, sympathy and helpfulness, as he moved 
about, fortified both the timorous and the brave. Needless 
to say, he shared privations and faced dangers on an equal 
footing with the humblest around him. At the mess table, 
when horse meat was served for the first time, on being asked 
how he liked it, he smacked his Ups and replied, ''Now I 
have discovered what it was that my cook used to serve for 
my dinner parties, when I had charged him to spare no pains 
to get a specially fine piece of mutton!" 

During those desperate weeks his thoughts must have 
striven to forecast the political outcome for China, if the 
armies of the allied powers should reach Peking and raise 



SIR ROBERT HART AND HIS LIFE WORK 299 

the siege and inaugurate the day of reckoning. What would 
be the fate of the empire, and what the fate of the great 
service which he had spent forty tireless years in building 
up? Would it still be permitted to endure? Could the new 
postal service hope to be saved from wreck and allowed 
to continue its growth? 

No sooner was the siege over than the inspector general 
gallantly took up his work. The city — all round about the 
legations — he found to be naught but bare walls of brick 
amid heaps of ruins. He did not forget to telegraph to Lon- 
don — to his one and only tailor — for suits of heavy clothes; 
winter was drawing near. He discovered two vacant 
rooms in the rear of Mr. Kierulff's shop in the legation quar- 
ter; these now became the head office of the inspectorate 
general! Here I found him at Christmas four months later 
with a few of the best men in the service by his side — 
gathering up the tangled threads and restoring the disordered 
fabric. 

Hart's first step when safe once more, was to cast about 
him for the former head of the Chinese foreign office. Prince 
Ch'ing, in order to bring China again into official relations 
with the ministers of the foreign powers. Obviously the 
main thing to be done was to open negotiations, to arrange 
preliminary terms of peace, to get the foreign troops called 
in from the country around Peking, and so spare the afflicted 
peasantry. Government all over north China had become 
demoralized and order must replace the threatened chaos. 
Prince Ch'ing was soon found by Sir Robe'rt and was easily 
induced to begin peace making. This was a service of incal- 
culable value to the future of China. Hart then wrote that 
series of seasonable articles which appeared rapidly in vari- 
ous magazines, while public attention was still intent on 
the Chinese question, pointing out to Europe and to America 
the causes of the Boxer fury and the consequences to be 
expected in the future of injustice perpetrated by the great 
powers against the integrity and the rights of China. These 
essays , collected and published with the title These from the 
Land of Sinim, still stand as a warning to the leaders of world 
politics and dollar diplomacy. It is a marvellous instance 



300 EDWARD B. DREW 

of Hart's fidelity to China and devotion to duty, that even 
after his bitter experience of cruel indifference and ingrati- 
tude, he harbored no personal resentment. He took no 
holiday, no respite for recuperation after the siege. His 
capacity and inclination for work seemed as unerring and 
as strong as ever; he soon had the reins in his controlling 
hands, and the customs and postal services kept on their 
steady way. It is needless to say that during the lawless 
autumn of 1900, when looting and loot buying was a fash- 
ionable orgy in Peking, Hart with a quiet scorn would have 
no part in it. He did not even permit himself to walk 
through the palaces of the Forbidden City, then aban- 
doned by the court and guarded by the troops of the allies.^ 

The empress dowager, on her return to Peking, summoned 
him to private audience. As he entered the presence cham- 
ber she covered her face and expressed her shame and morti- 
fication for the treatment he had suffered. 

Sir Robert remained at his post more than seven years 
after the events of 1900. He stayed long enough to behold 
the beginnings of the changing China. The education re- 
form, the Japanese-Russian war, the miraculous crusade 
against opium, the pledges of a new constitution with parlia- 
ments and a limited monarchy; these great events marked 
his closing period in China. No wonder it seemed that he 
could not find the moment when he might leave Peking and 
go once more to England. He had been "home" but twice 
since his first arrival in the East in 1854, namely, in 1866 
when he was married, and in 1878 when he was special com- 
missioner for China at the Paris Exposition. Lady Hart 
now came back herself to Peking, in 1906, and induced him 
to take leave of absence. The state of his health — at last — 
re-inforced her persuasions. He left China in 1908, and 
arriving in London entered for the first time the house where 
had been for twenty years the home of his wife and children. 

^ In July, 1900, false telegrams from China reported that the beseiged 
inmates of the legations had been overpowered and massacred. These 
were too widely credited, and a few weeks afterwards Hart— as well as a 
number of others — had the satisfaction of reading in the London Times 
of July 17 long notices of their own careers with candid criticisms of their 
deficiencies and their public services! 



SIK ROBERT HART AND HIS LIFE WORK 301 

He was an old man of seventy-three. Many and great honors 
were now conferred upon him in his own country by cities 
and universities. 

China now witnessed momentous changes; the statesman 
Chang Chih-tung died, the emperor and the Dowager 
empress ''ascended to be guests on high." A weak regency 
followed. The regent, to satisfy a foolish revenge, took the 
fatal step of dismissing China's wisest minister Yuan Shih- 
kai. Repeated messages from the Peking foreign office 
appealed to Sir Robert to return to China. His answer was, 
"Yes, so soon as my health will permit." But, alas, this 
was not to be. Robert Hart had finished his course, a worn 
out man at last! Early in the autumn of 1910 he died of 
pneumonia, in the country near London. He was buried 
at Bisham Church not far from Marlow. He had not lived 
to witness the great events of 1911; but the revolution could 
not have surprised him. Years before he had pointed to the 
impending fate of the decadent Tsings — the once illustrious 
House of Kang Hsi and Kien Lung. 

Of Sir Robert Hart's personal characteristics there is 
no time here to speak at length. His daily life was a fixed 
routine from which it greatly irked him to be diverted. 
After morning tea with Virgil or Horace as his companion, 
he devoted an hour to the violin — for he delighted in music. 
Nine o'clock found him in his office, where he worked stand- 
ing at his desk — ^with an old railway rug strapped round him 
in winter. At ten he received his secretaries, heard their 
reports and gave directions. This routine being despatched, 
he settled down to his own tasks alone. In doing business 
he was stern, brief, exact and exacting. His directions to 
his staff, short and unmistakable, were issued in writing; 
and no one ventured to question them unless sure of strong 
grounds for objection or criticism. Usually the inspector 
general would be found to be posessed of fuller information 
and to have thought deeper than the objector, and discom- 
fiture followed. At noon he left his office for a walk in the 
garden around the house. This was the practice hour for 
his band — Chinese musicians led by a European. At this 
time children (of whom he was a merry companion) walked 
and gossiped with him. After lunch, usually eaten alone. 



302 EDWARD B. DREW 

and a short nap, he was again in his office where he wrote 
till dark or even later. In the afternoon he did not permit 
himself to be disturbed. Work over, he walked again, 
frequently alone, in the garden. After dinner he read, first 
something serious, philosophy, biography or poetry, — then 
finishing the evening with a novel. History, strange to say, 
did not attract him. He was abstemious in a general sense, 
though he did not refrain entirely from wine or tobacco. 
He was by no means unsocial, as a member of the Peking 
community; he made calls, he dined out, and himself gave 
a dinner party weekly through the winter season, followed by 
a dance. Nor was he ever too old to share in the quadrille 
and the lancers. But these evening festivities were confined 
within those bounds of time which the morrow's work 
demanded; when eleven o'clock came, the band struck up a 
stated march — the signal, familiar to every guest, to say 
"Good night" and go home. His Christmas trees year after 
year, who that were children in Peking can ever forget 
them! Such generosity, such an effort (sometimes pathet- 
ically mistaken) that each gift should exactly suit the re- 
ceiver! Each parcel had been selected, done up, and marked 
by Sir Robert's own hand! But also such a rigid injunction 
to disperse promptly when the hour struck! Though to 
many persons Hart's life would seem an inflexible slavery 
to routine, yet he was one of the most interesting of men. 
There was nothing in the wide world far or near to which he 
was indifferent. He was full of imagination, with a deep 
vein of superstition even. Coincidences, signs, telepathy 
had the greatest attraction for him, he was always looking 
out for them and found them everywhere. When the pro- 
tocol of the treaty with France in 1885 was at last agreed to 
— a welcome release from a protracted strain of suspense — 
he telegraphed even from far Peking to Paris, "Don't sign 
on the first April !"^ 

^ An excellent account of Sir Robert Hart's personality, of his relations to 
the members of the customs service, and of his work, may be found in chap- 
ter xvi of Sir Henry Norman's The Peoples and Politics of the Far East, Scrib- 
ner, 1895. 

See also chapter on the "Inspectorate of Customs" in H. B. Morse's 
Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire. 



SIR ROBERT HART AND HIS LIFE WORK 303 

The only institutions of government in China today which 
have stood firm through the revolution's storm and stress 
and which seem certain to be permanent, are the two great 
organizations founded and built up by Robert Hart — the 
customs, China's one stable source of known revenue, and 
the postal service, which is spreading new ideas and stimu- 
lating popular intelligence throughout the land. These 
services afford careers to perhaps 20,000 Chinese. 

Of late, some of the new leaders among the Chinese have 
expressed keen resentment because Hart did not train their 
native fellow countrymen to fill the highest posts in the cus- 
toms. Rather than display this resentment, these critics 
might render more useful aid to their country at this crisis 
by devoting their energies to imitating in other departments 
of administration the efficient and incorruptible public serv- 
ice which Hart built up. Here is their best field of present 
reform ! Let them imitate the example ready to their hands ! 
It is true that Hart did not train up Chinese to become com- 
missioners of customs at the treaty ports. In the sixties 
he announced publicly his purpose to do so through the 
Tung Wen Kwan Colleges at Peking and Canton. That 
nothing came of this purpose is the fault of the native ofii- 
cials, who degraded those colleges into mere sinecures for 
permanent, idle (but salaried) "students" so called! Prior 
to the revolution, there were no cadets to be found of the 
social standing and birth requisite to make responsible and 
incorruptible chiefs of the customs offices. Such Chinese 
young men as chose to come forward did not possess the 
inherent qualities or the native education to enable them to 
acquire the prestige necessary for dealing with Chinese 
official colleagues of the old school, or to exercise due author- 
ity over their staffs or among native and foreign merchants 
at the ports of trade. Besides, the customs service was 
legally in its nature and origin, a mixed institution, to be 
conducted under foreigners and in foreign methods. And 
as with time loans to China were made, the lenders even 
stipulated that the customs revenues which were pledged as 
security must be administered according to the existing 
system and without organic change. In a word Chinese 



304 EDWARD B. DREW 

official ideals of integrity must first be raised, as they will be; 
and when that time comes, the customs service will require 
no foreign stiffening. ^ Sun Yat Sen has taken a juster view 
of Hart's achievements than some others of his native 
critics.^ 

The key of Hart's life of patience and loyalty with the 
Chinese and of his fidelity to duty, was a simple one. To me 
he wrote in 1867, thinking of slow China, early in his career: 

We have not wings, we cannot soar, 
But we have feet to scale and climb 
By slow degrees, by more and more. 
Therefore, learn to labor and to wait. 

And on the pad on his office desk. Miss Bredon tells us, not 
long before quitting China he had left these characteristic 
lines: 

If thou hast yesterday thy duty done. 
And thereby cleared firm footing for today, 

Whatever clouds may dark tomorrow's sun. 
Thou shalt not miss thy solitary way! 



* Further and plainer language on this topic may be found in Bland's 
Recent Events and Present Policies, p. 209. 

^ Sun Yat Sen and the Awakening of China, by Dr. James Cantlie, p. 248, 
Dr. Sun calls Hart "the most trusted as he was the most influential of 
'Chinese.'" 



A PERSONAL ESTIMATE OF THE CHARACTER OF 
THE LATE EMPRESS DOWAGER, TZE-HSI 

By Katharine A. Carl, Painter of the Portrait of the Late 
Empress Dowager 

I must first apologize for giving you but a gossipy talk, 
reminiscent of the dynasty that has passed and not touching 
upon things of import to China of today. Though the object 
of this conference, to which Clarke University has convened 
us, is to bring us to a better knowledge and appreciation of 
the Chinese, while we thrill at the recital of the struggles 
of the young republic to make itself worthy, I think all 
who are interested in China of today, even the ardent young 
republicans themselves, cannot fail to find some interest, to 
feel some pride in the great Empress Tze-Hsi who so long 
presided over the destinies of China, who, Manchu as she 
was, loving her own and full of the prejudices of her race. 
I found a patriotic Chinese, really loving and fully conscious 
of her great responsibilities toward China, deeply imbued 
with the idea of China's integrity, her right to retain her 
national entity at all costs and her power to work out her 
own salvation. 

I had the honor of painting her majesty's portraits and 
of living with her during the eleven months necessary for 
the work. I was, during this time, brought into the close 
and quasi-intimate association that generally exists between 
the painter and his sitter, however august, and I learned to 
admire the Empress Dowager sincerely. I found her a 
charming woman ever fascinating and elusive, a perfect 
hostess, always thoughtful and considerate, a witty conver- 
sationalist, a clever painter, a womanly woman full of intelli- 
gence and charm; besides admiring in her those qualities of 
statesmanship, that executive power which the world at 
large has acknowledged. 

305 



306 KATHARINE A. CARL 

Interesting as she was from the artist's standpoint, with 
her well poised head, her flashing eye, her noble nose, her 
regal bearing enhanced by imperial vestments and splendid 
jewels: her character, her vivid personality soon charmed me 
more than her exterior, and psychologically she was as inter- 
esting a study as she was artistically. 

As the first question I am invariably asked about my 
experience is China is ''How did you come to paint the Em- 
press Dowager's portrait?" I will leave the interesting 
personality of my august sitter for the moment, and begin by 
telhng you all I know about this. I visited Peking a few days 
after my arrival in China and at a dinner my first evening 
there, a secretary of the French legation in Peking (whom I 
had known in Paris) from his place at table, some distance 
from mine, asked me if I was not going 'Ho paint the por- 
trait of the Empress Dowager while I was in Peking." I 
laughlingly replied I was was perfectly willing to do so, but 
feared "willingness" would not carry me far towards its 
accomplishment, that my ambition at that time had not 
soared higher than hoping to have the opportunity of seeing 
the great woman! He insisted that being a woman and a 
painter of some Httle reputation were " quaUfications" and 
that it was not so improbable. He then appealed to Sir 
Robert Hart asking him if it were not "probable." Sir 
Robert seemed more annoyed than interested and put a 
stop to the conversation by saying, "Miss Carl has not come 
to China to paint anyone's portrait." Later in the evening 
when I was alone with him, Sir Robert referred to the con- 
versation by saying. "It seems strange Monsieur — 

who has been in China ten years doesn't know Chinese 
emperors and empresses are never painted from hfe. After 
their deaths a more or less imaginary likeness from memory 
is made of them, but should the Empress Dowager set 
aside all traditions, as she is capable of doing, it would never 
be in favor of a foreigner." As he was so earnest about it 
I laughingly assured him I had no intention of taking Mon- 
sieur au serieux, that I should not pursue the Em- 
press Dowager into the mysterious fastnesses of the forbidden 
city and demand to paint her portrait, nor should I even 



THE LATE EMPRESS DOWAGER TZB-HSI 307 

attack the Foreign Office, backed by my government, and 
insist on painting her majesty or having an indemnity. 

Four months later I was in Chefoo. There I received a 
letter from Mrs. Conger wife of our then minister to China. 
She wrote, "There is a question of the Empress Dowager 
having her portrait painted. Mr. Conger and I are very 
anxious to have it sent to the St. Louis Exposition. We 
should like to know, if it should be brought about, if you 
would be willing to come to Peking and undertake it." I 
hastened to assure Mrs. Conger not only of my "willingness" 
but of my great desire to do it. And immediately the mem- 
ory of my first night in Peking and the dinner conversation 
recurred to me and I realized, from what Sir Robert had 
told me, how improbable such a thing was. While feeling 
duly grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Conger for their interest, I 
spoke of the letter to no one but my brother and soon put it 
out of my mind. 

Five months later I was in Shanghai when I received a 
second letter from Mrs. Conger saying she thought the por- 
trait was "imminent," that they expected word from the 
palace any day as to when it was to be begun. Needless to 
say I was amazed and overjoyed at the thought of the "im- 
possible" becoming the probable, and in a few days I had 
the third letter from Mrs. Conger containing a copy of the 
official message her majesty had sent through the Wai-Wu- 
Pu to the American legation thus worded, "H. I. M. The 
Empress Dowager of Great China requests her Excellency 
Mrs. Conger to present the American artist at the palace on 
Friday August 5, for the purpose of painting her majesty's 
portrait." 

On arrival in Peking I went to the American legation as 
guest of our Minister and Mrs. Conger. Soon after my 
arrival there the Empress Dowager's interpreters came to 
inquire on the part of her majesty if I had made a comfortable 
voyage and to hope that I was not too fatigued thereby 
to begin her majesty's portrait on the day I was to be pre- 
sented. "The augurs and astrologers had naturally been 
consulted on so momentous an event as the painting of her 
majesty's &:-st portrait and had found that the day on which 



308 KATHARINE A. CARL 

I was to be presented was a most auspicious day for begin- 
ning." I immediately agreed to begin on the ''auspicious 
day," saying I would make a small sketch on that day. I 
was told her majesty did not wish a ''small sketch" but "a 
very large portrait." T assured them that the small sketch 
would serve as a basis for as large a portrait as her majesty 
desired, but I found this could not be done; as, to carry out 
the instructions of the augurs and astrologers, the final large 
picture must be begun, if only by a line, on the day chosen! 
Thus not knowing anything of her majesty, whether she 
would require a wide or narrow canvas, I stretched one, three 
by six feet, and on the appointed day Mrs. Conger, her in- 
terpreter and myself, with all my paraphernalia, canvas, easel, 
charcoal and paints set out for the summer palace, sixteen- 
miles from Peking. 

On arrival at the gates a young official from the Wai- 
Wu-Pu (foreign office) came out to receive us. The foreign 
office has its own building at the gates of the summer palace 
as at the winter palace in Peking, for the Empress Dowager 
unlike European potentates, transacted business of state 
even when she was in villegiature. This young official, 
while assisting us to alight, told us her majesty was in a most 
gracious mood and had decided to give me ''two sittings for 
the portrait" that I was to remain in the summer palace 
for the night and have a sitting the next day! Had I been 
able to begin by a preparatory small canvas, these two sittings 
would have delighted me, but two sittings for a canvas three 
feet by six was not encouraging! However, though I 
knew two sittings would be almost useless on such a canvas, 
I enjoyed the thought of being able to see the Great Empress 
and study her two days in succession. 

The palace eunuchs awaited us in the court of the foreign 
office with the red palace chairs. We were soon seated in 
them and lifted from the ground and borne swiftly by the 
eunuch bearers through the outer gates of the palace, past 
beautiful yellow roofed buildings through wonderful flower- 
filled courts until we finally reached the largest of these last 
on the banks of the lake. Tall flag staffs painted in blue and 
white with the imperial pennants waving in the breeze, flanked 



THE LATE EMPKESS DOWAGER TZE-HSI 309 

a white marble-stepped landing place. Growing shrubs and 
fragrant flowers filled this court, over which was stretched 
a silken awning. On the side opposite the lake, in front of 
a great yellow-tiled building with its roof's upturned corners 
supported by vermilion columns, our chairs were set down^ 
the great plate glass doors, emblazoned with her majesty's 
favorite character in vermilion and gold, were thrown open 
and we entered the throne room. 

A group of ladies stood waiting to receive us. The young 
Empress (wife of the Emperor) surrounded by the princesses 
of the blood and her majesty's interpreters (one German and 
three EngUsh and French). Neither the Empress Dowager 
nor the Emperor were present. The English and French 
interpreters were the Lady Yu Keng and her daughters; 
Yu Keng, a Manchu had been minister to France and there 
the daughters had learned French. While Lady Yu Keng 
spoke English. I was talking with them when I noticed a 
lull, and on looking around saw a young and charming look- 
ing person, who was so different from my preconceived idea 
of the Empress Dowager that I asked who it was. "Her 
majesty." She entered, followed by the Emperor, who looked 
young and shy. Mrs. Conger first paid her respects and 
immediately the Empress Dowager asked "Where is the 
artist," and I was brought up and began to make a reverence 
which she stopped by holding out her hands and saying 
"Ceremony is waived between artists," referring to herself 
as an artist which she was. After enquiring if I did not feel 
too tired to begin at the appointed time she withdrew to 
prepare herself for the sitting — as she had received us in 
quite simple dress. She soon returned clothed in all the 
splendour of her imperial attire, her hair dressed in Manchu 
fashion and bedecked with briUiant flowers and curious 
jewels, her face bright and animated, she was truly an 
interesting subject for an artist. She asked if there was 
any change I should like made in the disposition of the fur- 
niture and when I suggested that the Dragon Throne be 
moved nearer the great plate-glass doors (the only place 
where the light was good enough to work) the princesses and 
eunuchs looked as if the ceiling should fall upon my unworthy 



310 KATHARINE A. CARL 

head for such a suggestion but her majesty immediately 
ordered the throne moved, and when it was in place and my 
easel set up in front of it, she mounted the dais and said the 
hour for beginning was soon to sound and before she had 
finished speaking the eighty-six clocks in this throne-room 
began to strike the auspicious hour! Her majesty fixed her 
wonderful, penetrating eyes upon me and held up her hand 
for me to begin — and there I stood with the princesses in a 
row behind me and behind them a crowd of palace eunuchs, 
all watching me! I simply could not raise the charcoal to 
the canvas for a few seconds. I was ignominiously afraid; 
but I soon got some mastery over myself and began. It 
seemed to me I had drawn but a few moments when her 
majesty held up her hand and said the sitting was over. 
Aided by the princesses and ennuchs she descended from the 
dais and came to look at the portrait. I too looked at it; 
now with eyes that saw, and I realized how far I had fallen 
short of what I should have done. After looking at it for 
some time, though I am sure as fully conscious as myself of 
its shortcomings, she pronounced herself as satisfied with 
the beginning; and then turning to me said, ''How would 
you hke to stop in the palace and paint this at your leisure 
and my convenience?" I hastened to accept this most unex- 
pected invitation and thus began my eleven months in the 
different palaces of the Empress Dowager, and my delight- 
ful experiences as a member of her household; not quite as a 
member of her household, for though I had a day domicile 
within the precincts, she installed me in the palace of the 
Emperor's father near the summer palace. My domicile 
had beautiful grounds, numerous pavilions, lakes, summer 
houses and its own theater, she gave me a retinue of servants 
(three hundred, I learned later) also carts, horses, outriders : 
in short, entertained me in quite royal fashion. 

What most impressed me at first in the Empress Dowager 
was her extreme simphcity. I had always thought of her as 
the central figure in a continuous pageant, as never laying 
aside formality, as always rigid in the traditions of her old and 
conservative court; and I found her simple, womanly, and 
human in the best sense, interested in all that surrounded 



THE LATE EMPEESS DOWAGER TZE-HSI 311 

her, in nature, in people and in art. Her passion for flowers 
was extraordinary, and her dogs were great favorites, and 
she loved to amuse herself with them in her leisure moments. 
She was an early riser, and as all Chinese court functions 
are held before mid-day, she was early to bed as well. She 
rose at half past five and had her tea, then the young Em- 
press and the ladies came and assisted at her levee. On 
entering her bedroom they knelt and said together the usual 
greeting, " Lao-tze-tseng chee-siang." ''May the Holy 
mother be happy," and unless they were dismissed, all re- 
mained during her morning toilette which was the most 
elaborate of the day, as she dressed then for the audience 
or for any ceremony there happened to be. After the toilette 
was completed the Emperor came in and paid his respects. 
Then the two, in their imperial robes of state, went to the 
audience chamber followed by a large retinue of their respec- 
tive attendants. 

The audience hall was in another building, for the Chi- 
nese palaces, instead of being one great building as in 
Europe, consist of a number of pavilions divided by courts 
and connected by covered archways. The Emperor had 
his own pavilion and his own throne room quite apart 
from the Empress Dowager's in all the imperial palaces. 
The audience hall was in common. There they held their 
joint audiences. On their approach to the audience hall 
a band of Chinese musicians dressed in gala robes of red 
played a minor air on then- curious instruments in the rhythm 
of a Gregorian chant. I called this the imperial hymn for 
it was always played when their majesties passed for a cere- 
mony or to hold audience! The government in China under 
the Empress Dowager and the old regime was a comphcated 
affair. Every Province had its own and every city a num- 
ber of boards, and the heads of all these departments reported 
to their majesties' grand council at Peking several times a 
year, and their majesties received the members of the council 
or some officials everyday in audience. Audiences were 
held whether at the summer, sea, or winter palaces. I 
was, of course, never present in the hall while audience was 
being held. During the audience the young Empress and 



312 KATHARINE A. CARL 

the Princesses and ladies who had accompanied the Empress 
Dowager to the door, sat outside on the verandah, smoked 
cigarettes, and gossiped, and I sometimes made one of that 
frivolous throng. After the audience their majesties took 
their respective ways followed by their respective suites to 
their own quarters. On arrival in her throne room the 
Empress Dowager had her robes of state removed, her im- 
perial head dress with its flowers and jewels was taken off 
and she was then clothed in a simple gown and her hair 
arranged quite simply, close to her head with a single flower 
or one jewelled ornament. After this she sat down to rest 
and talk with the ladies. Then she would pose an hour for 
her portrait. I painted the first portrait in her throne room 
where she sat when her meals were served and out of which 
opened her bedroom and boudoir. During these sittings 
for the portrait she would sip tea from time to time or eat 
candied fruits, and now and then smoke cigarettes held in a 
jewelled mouthpiece. After an hour's sitting she would 
tire and say we must rest and when I protested I was not 
tired and could easily go on for an hour she would insist 
that if she were tired sitting, doing nothing, I must be, 
standing and working, that if she needed rest, I did also. 
Thus for the first three months I was not allowed to work 
except when she could sit, as the Throne room where I had 
to paint was her sitting room. When the sitting was finished 
the eunuchs removed the "holy picture" as the portrait 
was called; my brushes and palette were taken away to be 
cleaned, my easel removed and the throne room resumed its 
usual aspect, save for the throne which kept the place near 
the door where I had asked to have it moved that first day, 
a,nd the great yellow covered box which had been made, at 
the Empress Dowager's order, to hold my brushes, palette, 
oils, etc. 

After the sitting the Empress Dowager sometimes took a 
walk before ordering the luncheon or "early rice." For 
this, a long table was set with its one cover at the end for 
her majesty, for she took it alone. • The table was loaded with 
yellow dishes, filled with the different meats, fish, soups 
and vegetables, and covered with curiously chased pyramidal 



THE LATE EMPEESS DOWAGER TZE-HSI 313 

silver covers which were removed by an army of eunuchs 
when her majesty took her seat at the head. The meal, 
though the table was so bountifully set, was soon finished, 
for though she had a normal appetite the Empress Dowager 
was not a great eater. After the meal her golden rince- 
bouche was brought, then a great silver basin with silken 
towels when she washed her hands. 

After luncheon she took her siesta and was read to, when 
that was over there was a promenade through the grounds 
accompanied by the eunuchs bearing chairs, so that, if 
fatigued her majesty and the ladies could be carried over 
the rest of the ground. Sometimes she would be rowed on 
the lake in the imperial barge for the afternoon exercise. 
There was quite a fleet on the lake when she elected to go in 
her barge. This, with her throne chair covered with yellow, 
in the center of the raised platform, was drawn by two 
other boats of twenty-four standing rowers! The army of 
eunuchs who always accompanied the Empress Dowager and 
Emperor on their walks or when they went on the lake, stood 
in six or seven other boats which followed the imperial barge. 
She sat in her throne chair, the ladies sitting or reclining on 
cushions on the platform of the barge. When the Emperor 
elected to accompany her majesty, which he often did, he 
sat quite simply at her left on a cushion with no more cere- 
mony than was accorded the ladies, the only difference being 
that his cushion was yellow, while the ladies had red ones. 
His and the Empress Dowager's chief eunuchs stood behind 
them on the barge. These often served tea or sweets while 
we were gliding over the waters of the lake. We sometimes 
landed at one of the landing places far from the throne room 
court, and the chairs met us and we were carried back. 
Sometimes the barge would be brought to the imperial land- 
ing place flanked by the great painted columns bearing the 
imperial pennants, and we would disembark in front of the 
throne room. On our return from the promenade Wahn 
Fahn or late rice was served in her majesty's throne room. 
This, the dinner, was no more elaborate than luncheon. 
It could not be! There was the same long table laden with 
the yellow porcelain silver-covered dishes, filled with the 



314 KATHARINE A. CARL 

same rare and tempting food. Bird's nest soup, shark's 
fins, preserved eggs, white shrimps, boneless capons and 
ducks, bamboo shoots, salads and all the wonderful dishes 
that make the Chinese menu the most recherche and elab- 
orate in the world. It seemed a strange anomaly to call 
these repasts, worthy of LucuUus, by such simple names as 
early and late rice! 

After dinner (rarely later then six o'clock) when her 
majesty made the sign, I bade her good-night and, accom- 
panied by the Ladies Yu Keng and the eunuchs set aside 
for our service while in the palace, we were carried in our 
chairs to the outer gates, thence to our palace in our own 
carts and chairs. 

The Empress Dowager was a great purist as to language. 
She had a fine musical ear and detected at once and deplored 
any misuse of words or misplacing of the tonic accent, so 
important in speaking Chinese. It was a beautiful language 
as spoken by her, with her silvery voice and clear intonation. 
She bemoaned the fact of so many dialects being spoken 
in China. Even Mandarin (official) Chinese is marred 
by the many and varied accents of the different provinces; 
some of which were very trying to the ears of the Empress 
Dowager. She longed to have one language for China, 
spoken as well as written, and she would have welcomed with 
delight the reform the Repubfic is instituting, in the unifica- 
tion of spoken Chinese. 

Thinking my stay in the palace would be short I decided 
I would not try to learn Chinese as there were three good 
interpreters always ready to translate. The Empress Dow- 
ager, probably dreading another shock to her sensitive ear, 
did not encourage my learning. She said the foreigners 
studied it for a hfetime and then rarely spoke it well and it 
would be better if I tried Manchu as that was more analo- 
gous to a European language as it has an alphabet. But 
after I had learned a few phrases of greeting in Chinese 
with an accent not too offensive she thought I might try to 
learn it and asked if the foreigners had not some simple 
books for beginners, I got two. One compiled by the mis- 
sionaries for the use of novices for household needs; naturally 



THE LATE EMPRESS DOWAGER TZE-HSI 315 

expressed in anything but court-language, this was the first 
I gave her majesty to look at, she turned the first few pages 
slowly and then more and more quickly, and finally hurled 
it from her saying, ''It was impossible, I mustn't touch it." 
Then she looked at Giles' book for beginners in Chinese and 
though this did not meet her approval she decided I might 
study that, but said the young Empress would teach me to 
"speak properly." My efforts were a source of amusement 
to the princesses and even the eunuchs, and the ladies did 
not hesitate to burst into merry peals of laughter at my 
mistakes; all but the graciously-sweet young Empress. 
Even the Empress Dowager would sometimes share the gen- 
eral hilarity, for her sense of humor was strong, but she would 
soon check herself and the others by saying Chinese was so 
difficult that very few of the princesses spoke it properly as 
I would see when I learned more! 

So simple is the construction of spoken Chinese I soon 
learned enough to understand what was said to me. "When 
the Empress Dowager spoke it was so slowly and clearly her 
words being supplemented by eloquent gesture, I soon under- 
stood all she said. I have already alluded to her great love 
of flowers and this was not confined only to flowers, but to 
plants and the bettering of certain species. This was the 
same with her dogs, she was very careful about their breeding. 

When her eyes were stronger she had embroidered a 
great deal, she drew and painted and was a famous writer 
of the great characters. She did not disdain to interest 
herself in humbler duties, and she overlooked the smallest 
details of the imperial household. One day when she 
expected to receive some ladies of the legation and the 
throne room had been arranged for their reception, and her 
majesty and the princesses were already assembled, she, 
like some careful New England housewife, looking around 
to see that all was "proper" noticed some dust upon a piece 
of furniture and promptly ordered a silken cloth brought to 
her, with which she herself proceeded to dust, not only that 
piece but several others saying, "the best way to have a 
thing done well is to do it oneself!" No one despises labor 
in China. There it has a dignity of its own. 



316 KA.THARINE A. CARL 

Agriculture, one of the most important features of Chinese 
industry, has it own temple where the Emperor himself 
officiates. In the early spring of every year his celestial 
majesty himself plowed the first furrow of the year! It was 
one of the great court ceremonies! The plough drawn by 
an ox kept in the palace grounds whose toil of the year was 
confined to this imperial furrow, with the Emperor dressed 
in his robes of state between the handles of the plough 
guiding it with all seriousness and seeing that the furrow was 
straight and properly deep. The imperial princes and high- 
est officials of China clothed in their official robes following 
his majesty's footsteps! And I can say I never saw the 
Emperor more interested than the day I accidentally saw this 
ceremony, which takes place in the palace park the day 
before the public ploughing in the grounds of the temple of 
agriculture! This ploughing by the Emperor was to show 
the agriculturists of China the nobility of their work, great 
enough for the Son of Heaven himself to perform! The 
manufacture of silk, the rearing of the cocoons is another 
great industry of China, and the title of Guardian of the 
Cocoons was a coveted honor, bestowed only upon the prin- 
cesses of the imperial clan. Singing and dancing which we 
indulge in for our own amusement is relegated in China, to 
a class who do nothing else. The Empress Dowager having 
received a new grand piano while I was in the palace had 
me and the Misses Yu Keng try it for her one day, and when 
I played a waltz she asked to see it danced. When the 
Misses Yu Keng danced it and she found it was a regular 
practice among the Europeans, to do their own dancing she 
wondered why they couldn't get dancers to do it for them! 
Music is a part of most of the great ceremonies in China, 
and they enjoy the singing of actresses and musicians, but 
well bred people consider it undignified to sing, however, 
musical they may be. One glorious afternoon when we 
were out in the barge, drawn by the two boats of rowers, 
over the lake, all abloom with gorgeous pink lotus, past 
beautiful bridges and the quaintly carved marble quays, 
the radiance of the setting sun glinting with added gold the 
upturned yellow roofs on the shore, the Empress Dowager 



THE LATE EMPRESS DOWAGER TZE-HSI 317 

sat drinking in the beauty of the scene; and then, to the 
soft accompaniment of the rippling water and the swish of 
the oars against the lotus leaves, she began to sing, in a low, 
but perfectly placed voice, a soft minor song so charmingly 
and with such artistic grace, I could not help murmuring 
"beautiful" in Chinese, she started and said, "I forgot my- 
self. It is most unbecoming for an Empress of China to 
sing," and placing her hand upon my hair with one of her 
graceful half-caressing gestures she continued. ^^ Never 
mention my singing to any one, if the Shanghai papers 
knew it there would be a pretty row." 

Eight months later we were again at the summer palace. 
One lovely evening in the late spring, again floating in the 
imperial barge on the lake — I was sitting near the empress 
Dowager as before, and I dared ask her to sing again, and 
she did! the same sweet minor song, like some sweet croon- 
ing lullaby! It was charming. 

The too generally accepted idea that the Empress Dowager 
was of mean origin is now, thanks to the larger knowledge 
we have of things Chinese, quite exploded. She was de- 
scended in direct Hne from Nur-ha-chu the great warrior 
prince, whose splendid strategic feats led to the conquest of 
China and the founding of the Manchu dynasty. There 
were three other Empresses Dowager in her family. Her 
cousin was the first wife of Hsien-Fong of whom the late 
Empress Dowager became the fifth wife. She belonged to 
the powerful White banner clan. 

When I was in the palace I heard of an old Manchu pro- 
phecy dating from the conquest of China, that when ''one 
of the White banner-clan attained to imperial power in 
China it would be the end dynasty." Strange to say the 
late Empress Dowager, the first of the White banner to wield 
imperial power, wa8 virtually the last of the dynasty! I 
have often thought of this prophecy during the past year. 

As I have said before, the Empress Dowager seemed to me 
really a Chinese patriot, she loved China as did few of the 
Chinese themselves, with a real devotion. I used to say 
when I was in the palace, before Chinese patriotism had 
been fully awakened, that she was the only Chinese patriot 



318 KATHARINE A. CARL 

I had met! She beheved in China, she cherished the noble 
deeds of the rulers of all its other dynasties, she gloried in 
China's accomphshments in the past, she longed to bring 
back its briUiant epochs. She was profoundly discouraged 
at her powerlessness to check the inroads of the foreigners, 
at her inabiUty to infuse new life and greater effort into the 
Manchus. She hoped by inaugurating a representative 
government to increase China's power, to put new life into 
the governing element, to check the gangrene of official 
greed which was sapping the life of the government, j 

Though she would have fought to the last to retain her 
power and assure the supremacy of her clan for the future, 
I believe, had she lived to see this pacific revolution, the 
noble generosity of the republicans to the imperial family, 
the more than justice they have shown the Manchus in 
general; if she could have felt, as I firmly believe her broad 
mind and real patriotism was capable of feeling, that the 
republic, brought about by this extraordinary revolution 
was what China needed to shake her from her long lethargy; 
I think the Empress Dowager would have accepted it as a 
happy solution of the great problem of keeping China's 
entity intact, and estabhshing a nation united and strong. 

However, I cannot but rejoice that she was borne aloft 
in the Dragon chariot before the revolution was accom- 
pHshed! 



THE MANCHU CONQUEST OF CHINA 

By F. W. Williams, Assistant Professor of Modern Oriental 
History, Yale University 

The expulsion of the Tartar dynasty which ruled China 
for two centuries and a half has excited the sympathetic 
approval of the civilized world. That dynasty had been 
tried in the balance and found wanting; under its rule the 
largest and potentially the richest homogenous empire in 
the world had been reduced to impotence by foreign powers, 
its resources neglected, its people mistreated. A summary 
of their shortcomings does not, however, set forth the mean- 
ing of the Manchu conquest of China, or explain the re- 
markable nature of their achievement. To estimate their 
place in history fairly it is necessary to review the course 
of that conquest and consider its effect upon the welfare 
of the people whom the Manchus inadvertently rescued 
from a condition bordering upon anarchy. A brief account 
of the conquest and settlement of this northern race is all 
that this paper contemplates. The expansion of China 
under their rule, and the revived prestige of a mighty na- 
tion acquired from the exercise of a higher sense of racial 
control than the Chinese themselves were capable of, are 
subjects belonging to another chapter of this story. The 
decadence of the Manchus — apparently an inevitable result 
of their contact with a higher culture — should not blind us 
to the extraordinary success of their great performance. 

Nurhachu, the founder of the high fortune of this clan, 
was born in 1559 in Hutuala, the capital of a small prin- 
cipality among the Great White Mountains, north of the 
Korean border. Here his ancestors of the Aisin Gioro 
(Golden Dynasty) had ruled for two centuries from the 
time of their founders, one of the "Kings" of the Niijen 
Tartars. The relationship of these peoples to the Kin and 
other Tartar conquerors of northern China in the Sung 

319 



320 F. W. WILLIAMS 

period is somewhat obscure, but they belong to the same 
race that had been driven from China by the Mongols in 
the thirteenth century and relapsed more or less into bar- 
barism in the wooded mountains between the Yalu and 
Sungari Rivers. China under the Mings had been fairly 
successful in holding them to the east of the Liao Valley 
while protecting her own settlers in Laiotung by garrisons 
in a line of border fortresses, but this fertile region was 
often harassed by bands of Tartar robbers. It was in pur- 
suance of the characteristic policy of setting these preda- 
tory gangs upon one another that the empire finally en- 
gendered the genius of one of the great fighting chiefs of 
Asiatic history and ultimately brought about its conquest 
by his successors. 

A khan of one of these tiny septs secured the help of the 
Chinese frontier guard in laying siege to a town ruled by 
a man who had married the granddaughter of Hiien, chief- 
tain of Hutuala, Nurhachu's grandfather. The old man 
hastened with his son and heir to assist the princess, but 
being decoyed outside of the walls by a ruse of the Chinese 
captain, both were slain together with most of the garrison. 
Nurhachu thus became the head of his house at the age 
of twenty-four. The Chinese officer appears to have ex- 
ceeded his instructions by embroiling the Bai, or Imperial 
Frontier Count, in the murder of these clansmen, and Nur- 
hachu received the bodies of his father and grandsire as 
well as presents of considerable value, together with inves- 
titure in his chieftainship and the title of Tu tuh — the same 
as that now given to the military governors of the prov- 
inces. Instead, however, of surrendering the murderer of 
his father the Chinese made him lord of all the Manchu 
clans, which placed the young chief in a position of extreme 
danger and caused him to devote his energies to attacking 
his enemy and revenging himself upon the treacherous 
Chinese. Three years later, by drilling and improving his 
forces, he had so strengthened his position that the Chinese 
thought it wise to deliver up his enemy Nikan for execu- 
tion, and to make a treaty that opened better trading facili- 
ties to his people. Next year, in 1587, he built Laocheng 



THE MANCHU CONQUEST OF CHINA 321 

a few miles from his ancestral capital, with a palace and 
court after the Chinese manner, and governed so wisely as 
to bring the five Manchu clans in a few years to recognize 
him as king. 

From this time to the end of his reign his career was one 
long succession of raids and conflicts brought about by the 
jealousy of his neighbors and his own determination to 
create an army that might become an instrument of his 
vengeance upon the Chinese. As a fighting chieftain he 
developed all those traits of elan, endurance and personal 
bravery that are common enough in history to excite no 
special surprise. He had the qualities of a Sivaji or a Skan- 
derbeg, and these alone are sufficient to account for his 
ultimate conquest of people of his own kind in the vast 
wilderness between the Pacific, the Amur and the Mongolian 
steppe, roughly half a million square miles. What arrests 
attention, however, is the extraordinary capacity revealed 
in this Berserker fighter for the administration of his con- 
quests and the assimilation of the sundry tribes within the 
region. The prestige of his victories attracted the soldiers 
of conquered tribes, who learned under a severe but gen- 
erous leader the advantages of discipline and union. By 
1606 he had even aroused the admiration of the Mongols 
beyond the Lao, whose Beiras sent him a complimentary 
embassy. Ten years later he had assumed the style of 
Tienming in his new capital at Hingking, and ruled his 
domain with the panoply and circumstance of a Chinese 
emperor. The assumption of this state was inevitably re- 
garded as a challenge by the Chinese, whose policy it had 
always been to prevent the border tribes from uniting, and 
to recognize no titles among them that were not bestowed 
by the Ming suzerain. But Nurhachu revealed in his dar- 
ing plans the political genius which has been a character- 
istic of his race in all ages, and which European observers 
have too often ignored. That race under various names 
has impressed us with its fighting powers, its endurance 
and its brutality; we have not recognized, however, its abil- 
ity to assimilate and control its conquered subjects by 
methods which, barbarous and imperfect as they may some- 



322 F. W. WILLIAMS 

times appear, have, during the period of the Christian era 
wrenched the government of every civilized Asiatic state 
from its own people and governed them on the whole with 
advantage. As Parthians, Mamluks, Mongols, Seljuk and 
Ottoman Turks, to leave the lesser breeds unnamed, the 
distant congeners of the Manchus have not only invaded 
but repeatedly controlled all the civilized nations of the 
continent. The history of China cannot be properly under- 
stood unless due notice is taken of the impact of her north- 
ern neighbors from the period of the great Ch'in to recent 
times, nor can we afford to neglect the fact that her own 
great dynasties and governing element have come from 
those northern provinces which are chiefly peopled by de- 
scendants of a Tartar-Chinese intermixture. 

Nurhachu, though he never entered China, stands as an 
exponent of the highest qualities of his race, a creative 
genius not only in strategy but in politics, the founder of 
a great tradition capably maintained for two centuries by 
his descendants, the establisher of a line of monarchs which 
have been surpassed by no other ruling house during an 
equal period in China. 

The Chinese had reason for serious apprehension if Nur- 
hachu succeeded in his purpose of reducing all the Tartar 
clans to his way. He had left them in no doubt as to 
his intention, when this was accomplished, of driving them 
behind the Great Wall, and in 1617 he published an open 
defiance to them by drawing up and burning with sacri- 
ficial ceremonies a document known as the "Seven Hates," 
including amongst the charges their murder of his parents, 
their interference with Manchu autonomy, their assistance 
rendered to his enemies, their assassination of an envoy 
and harassing of his farmers — "for all of which," he con- 
cludes, "I hate you with an intense hatred and now make 
war against you." They took him at his word, for while 
engaged, in 1619, in a war Vv^ith the last of the Niijen states 
that continued to resist him, a Chinese army of 200,000 
was assembled at Mukden and marched in four divisions 
against the little state of Hingking. With only 60,000 men 
he proceeded, by the same tactics that Napoleon employed, 



THE MANCHU CONQUEST OF CHINA 323 

to attack each of these divisions with his whole force before 
assistance could be got from the others. The result of the 
five days' battle, known as that of Sahu, was a complete 
and extraordinary victory for the Manchus and the anni- 
hilation of the Chinese army, with a loss of 45,000 men slain 
on the field. Yet, though his success secured for him un- 
questioned authority over the Niijen tribes that had held 
out against him, the Chinese troops soon recovered their 
morale under an able general, who fortified the towns of 
Liaotung so successfully that for two years Nurhachu did 
not venture to attack him. The bravery of the Chinese 
is noticeable throughout these campaigns. What defeated 
them ultimately was the removal of energetic generals and 
the unconscionable turpitude of the eunuch control under 
which the Peking government had fallen. In 1621 Mukden 
and Liaoyang with seventy walled cities were captured and 
the Manchus for the first time established in control of the 
whole territory which foreigners have ever since called by 
their name. The Chinese never gave up the contest, but 
they were badly led by dull and cowardly generals sent by 
the palace politicians. Nevertheless the resistance was al- 
ways determined. They lost the country west of the Liao 
down to the Great Wall, but regained most of it within 
four years under a competent leader called Sun Cheng- 
tsung, who fortified Shanhai kwan and Ningyuen. It was 
in 1625, during this period when his military advance was 
checked, that Nurhachu removed his palace from Liaoyang 
to Mukden — his sixth capital — and built the imperial head- 
quarters which the dynasty has ever since regarded' as its 
home. The transfer of the administration from the orig- 
inal tribal valley to this thickly settled Chinese plain was 
attended by a fuller adjustment of his government to the 
Chinese system and by an imitation of Ming ceremonial at 
his court. It was as natural for the princes to be educated 
in Chinese letters as it was for the Prankish princes to write 
Latin. Chinese culture was the only culture known to their 
world, and it was impossible for a sovereign in eastern Asia 
to set up his rule upon any other model or to hope for 
acceptance by civilized subjects unless he adopted their 



324 F. W. WILLIAMS 

institutions. The Mongols had done so, and before the 
Mongols every northern conqueror in China since China 
began to be. 

But what the Mongols learned of Chinese methods 
during a half century of conflict, the Manchu acquired in 
pursuing Nurhachu's sensible policy of providing several 
millions of Chinese settlers in the Liao Valley with the gov- 
ernment to which they were accustomed, and habituating 
their own clansmen to the language and order of a finer cul- 
ture than their own. It was this policy and their consistent 
recognition of a superior system that enabled the Manchus 
to retain their hold upon China after they had effected their 
conquest. The conquest itself, it will be observed, was a 
long struggle carried on chiefly through the agency of Chi- 
nese against Chinese until the country was too exhausted to 
offer further resistance to the forces that stood for order. 
At no time did the conquerors show superior generalship 
or valor; in numbers their own fighting men were always 
vastly nferior to the Chinese; in intellectual power they 
were never their equals. Yet they succeeded through sheer 
force of character, as the Ottomans have succeeded during 
a much longer period in western Asia, in dominating a 
people that were superior to them in every important qual- 
ity except that of leadership. 

Nurhachu met his first and only serious check in attempt- 
ing the capture of Ningyuen, which was defended by a good 
general and by cannon cast by Jesuit missionaries. He 
died soon after this, in September, 1626, and was buried 
in the great tomb outside of Mukden, which is still shown 
to travelers. In accordance with Chinese custom his per- 
sonal name had been replaced by the reign title of Tien- 
ming in 1616, when he assumed the dignity of emperor. 
After the accession of his grandson to the throne in Peking 
he was given the title of Taitsu, or Great Ancestor, by 
which he is known in imperial histories. 

His successor, a fourth son known as Taitsung, appears 
to have been loyally supported by numerous brothers in 
taking up the arduous work of carving out a kingdom and 
pressing down upon China. The defense of the lower Liao 



THE MANCHU CONQUEST OP CHINA 325 

was, however, maintained with much persistence by the 
Chinese, despite the corruption and divided councils of the 
Ming government, that his way to the capital remained 
closed, owing chiefly to the obstinate resistance of the two 
strong fortresses of Ningyuen and Shanhai kwan. While he 
cannot be granted the supreme place in the fortunes of his 
family that belongs to Nurhachu, the task bequeathed to 
him of advancing those fortunes beyond the ancestral do- 
main was hardly less difficult than that of winning its inde- 
pendence. His first achievement, the conquest of northern 
Korea, whose loyalty to the Ming suzerain necessitated its 
punishment to secure his southern frontier, was completed 
in 1627. His other neighbors, the Mongols, presented a far 
more serious problem, but within ten years, between 1626 
and 1636, by a series of expeditions and negotiations, he 
had succeeded in practically incorporating Kortsin into his 
own domain and obtaining the suzerainty and tribute of 
all inner Mongolia. Besides the obvious strategic necessity 
of thus solidifying his own boundaries the control of Mon- 
golia permitted him to raid the whole northern tier of Chi- 
nese provinces across that vast border which has ever been 
a source of their apprehension since the beginning of re- 
corded history. A great excursion in force was made in 
1629 to the city of Peking itself, where the terrified court 
was besieged for some weeks and the country around laid 
waste, but the Chinese general with his army brought down 
from Shanhai kwan was able to prevent an assault and the 
capital was saved. 

Taitsung died at the age of fifty- two in September, 1643, 
and was succeeded by his ninth son, a child of five, while 
the control of the Manchu dynasty passed into the hands 
of the boy's uncle Dorgun. It was a critical moment in 
the career of that dynasty, for dissension amongst the many 
able and aspiring sons of Nurhachu would have involved 
its ruin had a struggle amongst them for the succession be- 
gun. By continuing the line in accordance with prescribed 
Chinese custom, in the person of a heir of the next gen- 
eration, the internal peace of the warlike band was pre- 
served while their activity found ample scope in the sudden 



326 F. W. WILLIAMS 

and enormous expansion of their emprise in the conquest 
of China. 

Meanwhile the internal condition of the Chinese empire 
had become desperate under a long series of famines and 
rebellions which had utterly paralyzed its economic re- 
sources and brought about a general anarchy. It is impos- 
sible to decide whether under such loosely organized agen- 
cies as that of China the general prevalence of distress is 
a cause or a consequence of political disturbance. When 
thickly populous agricultural communities are reduced to 
starvation the people will inevitably break up into robber 
bands and prey upon each other to the confusion of all 
civil administration. No government can reduce the dis- 
order unless provisions can be obtained to satisfy the needs 
of those made desperate by want; but a bad government 
may by its inefficiency aggravate the starving people and 
succumb to the forces of disruption thus let loose. It is 
notable that in the history of China no great upheaval has 
occurred without its concomitant of famine. In the third 
decade of the seventeenth century the northern provinces 
were visited by an unusually severe drought which was so 
badly met by venal officials that multitudes took to the 
mountains and attacked the roads and villages. In addi- 
tion to these natural causes weakening authority in an im- 
perfectly articulated domain, increased taxation and recur- 
ring levies of troops to meet the Manchus began in 1621 
to arouse angry opposition in the western provinces. Re- 
volts broke out which were painfully and only partly sub- 
dued. By 1631 the robber bands throughout all the inland 
provinces had swelled to great armies under redoubtable 
captains, whose successes encouraged the able-bodied to en- 
list under their banners and live upon the spoil of captured 
cities. At the end of another decade Li Tsu-cheng, a Shansi 
leader, after many vicissitudes, had become the greatest of 
them all, and with an army composed of nearly a million 
needy adventurers he was swarming, in 1641, over the fam- 
ine-stricken province of Honan toward Peking. Despite the 
impotence of the imperial government in this score of years 
of carnage it is remarkable that the various rebel armies 



THE MANCHU CONQUEST OF CHINA 327 

met with obstinate resistance in many cities. There was 
no systematic opposition, yet owing to the indomitable 
spirit in defending their own which characterizes the Chi- 
nese people, as well as to the lack of organization among the 
rebels, the agony was long continued. The contrast be- 
tween the Chinese rebel Li and the Manchu Nurhachu is 
suggestive as typical of the differing genius of the two races. 
It has often been said that the Chinese were conquered 
because they were unwarlike. They showed, on the con- 
trary, a persistent fighting eagerness both before and after 
the Manchu irruption that ranks them among the martial 
people of the world. They failed both in rebellion and in 
defense because they could produce no leader capable of 
consolidating and fixing an orderly system of control. The 
Manchus succeeded, though they had to borrow and adapt 
the system of their enemy, because they know how to make 
themselves obeyed. 

Peking was surrounded by the rebel host in February, 
1644, and fell through sheer cowardice on the part of its 
defenders, lost to all sense of loyalty and shame through 
generations of eunuch control. The last of the Ming em- 
perors, incapable to the end of any resolute action, com- 
mitted suicide as the rebels poured over the deserted walls, 
and the city and palace — perhaps the richest storehouse of 
valuables at that time in the world — was given over to 
slaughter and pillage. Li put on the imperial yellow and 
reigned for one day, in the palace, when he was called away 
to the north by a sudden and unexpected danger. Wu 
San-kwei, the ablest Chinese general that the herculean 
struggle against the Tartars had produced, preferring a 
Manchu Hwangti to a rebel upstart, called upon Dorgun 
to join him in avenging his dead sovereign. The Manchu 
army was hurried down to Shanhai kwan, Wu and his army 
were constrained to shave the forehead and adopt the Tar- 
tar queue, and preparations made for an advance upon the 
capital. But Li, who knew the value of keeping the aggres- 
sive, was upon them with his great host ere their forces 
had left the Wall. His defeat in the terrific battle that 
ensued before Shanhai kwan was due, it would appear, to 



328 ^ F. W. WILLIAMS 

his carelessness in scouting, for, unaware of the Manchus 
drawn up among the hills on his flank, the rebels were dis- 
concerted by their sudden advance just as they were wear- 
ing out Wu's troops by mere weight of numbers. Their 
route was followed up by Wu, while Dorgun and his sol- 
diers hurried on to the dismantled capital. He placed his 
nephew the Emperor Shunchih upon the Dragon Throne, 
removing the seat of his government from Mukden as soon 
as the devastation of the rebel Li could be repaired. 

But possession of the capital was far from giving the new 
dynasty control of the empire. China continued for nearly 
a score oi years in armed revolt against her foreign con- 
querors, whose unity and steadfast policy, rather than any 
proficiency in arms, at length brought them victory. At 
the outset of this obstinate struggle the odds were enor- 
mously against them. The resources of the natives in men 
and materials were greatly superior to their own; their base, 
the Yellow River basin and the Great Plain, had been rav- 
aged by years of famine and rebellion from which the south- 
-ern provinces had suffered but little; loyalty to the Ming 
dynasty, despite its abuses, still inspired the educated class 
everywhere; and finally, the elements of disorder long since 
set loose under the robber rebellion gave free vent to that 
centrifugal tendency within the vast empire which has ever 
disposed its various provinces to fall apart, when opportuni- 
ties offered, into separate governments under local adventur- 
ers. Had the fallen dynasty produced jone resolute master 
of men capable of choosing and controlling his ministers it 
could at least have held the land south of the Yangtse and 
divided China into two kingdoms as in the days of the 
Sung. But China seemed to be impotent in begetting a 
single administrator worthy of the name; she fell at last 
under the domination of an inferior race because the genius 
of her people was unable to meet the first requirement of 
a true national life. Whether this failure was due to de- 
terioration of moral fiber, the result of a civilization grown 
too old to revive, the future alone will show. 

The Manchu regent found his first great work at hand 
in setting up the machinery of government in Peking and 



THE MANCHU CONQUEST OF CHINA 329 

restoring order in two of the "home provinces/' Shansi and 
Honan; the other, Shantung, dispersed Li's rebel officials 
but remained for some time loyal to the Ming claimant. 
Li Tsu-cheng himself had to be pursued by Wu San-kwei 
and defeated in eight great battles during eighteen months 
before he ended his own life, a discredited fugitive in Hupeh. 
Dorgun very shrewdly proclaimed amnesty to all who would 
acknowledge his authority, and their old titles and emolu- 
ments to members of the old imperial household, even re- 
storing the Ming tombs west of Peking and sacrificing to 
the manes of their former emperors. Many accepted his 
terms, but the family was large and produced a succession 
of futile aspirants to the throne — names to conjure with 
amongst a proud and loyal people, but all alike cowardly 
and trivial, unworthy even of sympathy in the disasters 
which infallibly crowned their recalcitrance. Five of these 
deserve mention for the trouble they created. A grandson 
of the famous old Emperor Wanli, known by his title of 
Fu Wang, was promptly recognized as emperor in the Yangtse 
and coast provinces, and established in Nanking, the orig- 
inal capital of his dynasty A victim of the weakness 
which marked all the degenerates of that dynasty, he gave 
his days to dancing girls and the business of restoring its 
fortune to one Ma Shu-ying, perhaps the most rapacious 
and unprincipled monster of these distressful times, ignoring 
the advice and devotion of his minister Shu Ko-fa, a noble 
contrast to the favorite. Shantung, deserted by Ming in- 
competency, was promptly subdued, and Nanking capitu- 
lated after the flight and surrender of the pretender. About 
the same time another army conquered Hupeh province, 
and Manchu supremacy obtained throughout the country 
north of the Yangtse. Had it not involved the compul- 
sory change of head-dress to the plaited queue, that suprem- 
acy might have been supported with less contumacy on the 
part of the Chinese. The ordinance was enforced with 
vigor, presumably because the Manchus found it necessary 
amid frequent defections to insist upon some visible sign 
of submission among the natives, but the imposition of 
such a test upon a vain and self-sufficient :)eople like the 



330 F. W. WILLIAMS 

Chinese reveals their incapacity to understand the mind 
of a more subtle race when its amour propre is concerned. 

The second pretender, called the Tang Wang, once a 
Ming prince of Nanyang, found temporary support in 
Kiangsi and Fuhkien, but it melted away through the per- 
fidy and incompetence of his generals. His brother Yii 
Ngao established the imperial pageant in Canton after his 
destruction in December, 1646, but the city was soon cap- 
tured by a surprise and he killed himself in the presence 
of the Chinese traitor who made him prisoner. A fourth 
Ming, known as the Lu Wang, had ere this set up as an 
opposition emperor in Chehkiang, where, partly through 
the assistance of pirates, he regained all of Fuhkien between 
1648 and 165Q; but he fell foul of Koxinga's ambitions and 
was drowned in 1653 at Amoy. The last aspirant for Ming 
leadership, Yowliang the Kwei Wang, a great-grandson of 
Wanli, was proclaimed emperor in Kwangsi as a rival of 
Yii Ngao He was utterly worthless, like the rest, but the 
strength of Chinese hostility to the Manchus was revealed 
in 1648, when after being chased into Yunnan, a sudden 
resurgence of opposition throughout the whole of China 
swept the seven southern provinces and Szchuen under his 
allegiance, and the Regent was confronted with the task 
of reconquering the greater portion of the empire. To add 
to his difficulties a famine again exhausted the north, the 
Mongols got out of hand and raided over the Wall, the 
Mohammedans rose in Kansuh, and bandits swarmed in 
every province. In this new crisis of their affairs the daunt- 
less Wu San-kwei was given the chief command, and very 
slowly the Ming supporters were pushed back by their own 
countrymen until the cowardly Kwei Wang fled over the 
Yunnan border into Burma, to be surrendered in 1661 by 
the Burmese and die by his own hand a captive of the great 
general. 

The year 1661 marks the first lull in the secular resist- 
ance of China to the imposition of foreign rule. The coun- 
try was conquered but not convinced. In the general 
wreckage of seventeen years of war it had exhausted its 
resources without developing a commander fit to excite an 



THE MANCHU CONQUEST OF CHINA 331 

enduring loyalty or unite the diverse desires of different 
sections. Under the apathy that ensued after this bitter 
experience the Manchus very prudently encouraged recon- 
struction by appointing Chinese officials chosen according 
to the ancient tests throughout the empire, and China re- 
turned sensibly though sullenly to her age-old life of toil 
under her new masters. Ten years before this date Dorgun 
the Regent had died, leaving Shunchi to direct the imperial 
policy in person at the age of twelve. We do not hear 
much of his intellectual endowments, but he had been 
nurtured in a household of sturdy kinsmen and he must 
have matured early to have employed his talents success- 
fully at this age. He did in 1661 in his twenty-fourth 
year, leaving the empire to a son eight years old whose 
reign name Kanghsi is one of the most brilliant in Chinese 
history. 

The Manchus were not ungrateful to the Chinese gen- 
erals who had enabled them to win an empire. Wu San- 
kwei, whose pursuit of the Kwei Wang had completed the 
crowning performance of that great conquest, was given 
the title of prince and made absolute lord of the two prov- 
inces of Yunnan and Kweichow, with his own army and 
entire control of the civil appointments and revenues of the 
territory. Two other generals, both Liaotung men, were 
in like manner created princes of the maritime provinces 
of Kwangtung and Fuhkien, from which, as from Wu's 
domain, all the Manchu soldiery was withdrawn. Judged 
by the event this method of rewarding their services seems 
imprudent, but amid the multitude of traitors that must 
have made China appear to these Tartars as infected with 
perjury, these men had resisted the temptations to which 
others had succumbed and remained loyal to the end. Their 
honors were awarded in proportion to the magnitude of 
their efforts. But Prince Wu, either because he wearied of 
his sovereign state in a remote province, or because he was 
apprehensive of the imperial plans to reduce his army, after 
accumulating stores and revenues revolted in 1674, soon 
after the young Kanghsi had assumed control of the gov- 
ernment. With him arose also the Prince Kung of Fuhkien ; 



332 F. W. WILLIAMS 

and in a few weeks the empire was once more ablaze with 
insurrection, officials everywhere surrendering their cities 
and the people gladly removing their queues. Six provinces 
turned against their Manchu masters; a seventh, Kwang- 
tung, remained neutral because its old Prince, Shang Ko-si 
was loyal, but his son Chu-sin, a drunkard, accepted the 
title of Great Commander from Wu, assumed the old Chi- 
nese headdress and made his aged father a prisoner. The 
latter died in 1676, and Chu-sin, rather alarmed at Wu's 
attitude toward him, made his peace with Kanghsi. The 
other rebel prince (of Fuhkien) after some serious fighting, 
was pardoned and re-employed by the Manchus in 1677, 
but was subsequently executed in Peking, a fitting end for 
his cruelty and crimes. The defection of these coast prov- 
inces, though badly led, was heartily endorsed by their 
inhabitants whose hatred of the Manchus has never much 
abated, and a considerable Manchu army had to be em- 
ployed in bringing them to order. Wu San-kwei raged up 
and down the western provinces, where his armies at one 
time had possession of Shensi and even threatened Peking. 
So long as he lived there seemed to be a magic in the old 
warrior's name that paralyzed the troops brought against 
him. All his campaigning was carried on in the enemy's 
country, and though he was presently driven out of Shensi 
and the two Kwang, he died holding his own in Hunan, 
while none dared to attack his base in the southwest. Dur- 
ing four years this indefatigable fighter had wrenched nearly 
half of China from Manchu control and maintained his 
upstart government upon the resources of the least produc- 
tive portion of the empire. Kanghsi, who inherited the 
physical vigor of his great ancestors, was with difficulty 
dissuaded from taking charge of the campaign against this 
formidable rival in person. His counsellors were probably 
justified in their fears of losing Peking in an ^meute if he 
left the capital, but his resolution in the crisis and the re- 
sources at his command — chiefly in the better fighting qual- 
ities of the Mongols and northern Chinese troops — eventu- 
ally achieved a hard-earned victory over all his foes in 1681. 
Wu had succumbed to an illness in 1678; his grandson and 



THE MANCHU CONQUEST OF CHINA 333 

successor, Shu-fan, was beheaded upon the fall of his capi- 
tal Yunnan, and his head hung upon one of the city gates 
of Peking. The rebellion had failed, and the emperor could 
congratulate himself that he had accomplished what was 
necessary for establishing his autocracy, the disarming of 
the vassal princes. So long as they retained their heredi- 
tary powers the Manchu was little more than the feudal 
suzerain of China. Their revolt was a declaration of the 
right of the Chinese to rule themselves, and in this sense 
these eight years were the concluding act in the bloody 
drama begun in 1644. To insure the future Kanghsi abol- 
ished the title of Wang except as bestowed upon members 
of the imperial clan, nor was it made hereditary even 
amongst these. 

In the settlement of the country Manchu troops were quar- 
tered in permanent garrisons in a score of the more impor- 
tant cities of the empire. These ''bannermen" were for- 
bidden to intermarry with the Chinese or to engage in any 
occupation except that of arms. So long as these warriors 
were regularly exercised in their profession under the great 
military emperors, chasing bandits or campaigning in Cen- 
tral Asia, they remained a valid defence to the throne. But 
they never constituted an important element in the forces 
of the empire.^ In later times, becoming utterly demoral- 
ized through inaction, compelled to remain aliens in spirit 
as well as in race to the industrious Chinese who surrounded 
them and to whom they represented the yoke of a foreign 
master, they sank into forlorn and useless drones whose 
descendants were the first victims of the Chinese revolution 
of 1911. This was Kanghsi' s reply to the intransigeants of 
China. He was logical, perhaps, but time, a profounder 
logician, proved it to be fallacious. The conquest had not 
in reality been effected by Manchu braves or even by Man- 
chu wisdom, nor could the Manchus ever retain their hold 
upon China merely by the valor of thek men. Their at- 

1 In Chienlung's reign there were 45,500 Manchu bannermen disposed 
in twenty towns of China Proper, 8,750 near Peking and 15,000 in eight 
garrisons in Turkestan, besides about 100,000 guarding the imperial palace. 
The total Chinese army was 662,000, besides 700,000 provincial troops. 



334 F. W. WILLIAMS 

tack was begun at an opportune moment, when a long 
period of Ming misrule and her reduced vitality had so dis- 
tracted China as to admit of her capital being taken by a 
couy de main. The importance of Nurhachu's work of 
training and preparation was fully revealed in this initial 
success and in the admirable temper of his successors, as 
they employed all the factors in their favor while pushing 
the conquest through to an end. But these factors were 
for the most part Chinese: the hopeless incapacity of the 
Ming pretenders, the willingness of the Chinese to fight for 
the foreigners, the schisms that separated north from south, 
faction from faction, province from province, the indomita- 
ble fortitude of a courageous people when once enlisted in 
their cause. It was the Chinese themselves who completed 
the conquest of China for the Manchus; it was the Chinese 
who suffered them to rule because they adopted their cul- 
ture and institutions and took the natives into partnership 
in the management of the empire. No disposition of Man- 
chu garrisons at strategic centers could have long upheld 
that rule or prevented insurrections had the Tartars de- 
parted from their policy and managed their great estate 
selfishly. And who shall say that those who, for fear or 
favor, cast their lot with the Manchus decided unwisely for 
their country? The sovereigns of China never had a broad- 
er sense of empire or a clearer idea of the physical confines 
and defences of that empire than under Kanghsi, the great- 
est of her modern emperors, whose expansion of her boun- 
daries and increase of her prestige made her a greater power 
than ever before and strong enough to save her from sub- 
jugation by the predatory states of a newly awakened 
Europe. 



SOME EXPERIENCES AT THE SIEGE OF NANKING 
DURING THE REVOLUTION 

By C. Voonping Yui, M.D., of the Chinese Red Cross Society 

It affords me great pleasure to relate my experiences in 
Nanking last year while I was doing Red Cross work. The 
outbreak of the revolution started at Wuchang in the cen- 
tral part of China on the tenth of October, 1911. In a 
short period of time, Hankow, Hangyang and Wuchang 
came into the possession of the revolutionists. But when 
the attack was directed against Nanking, much resistance 
was encountered and the city was not captured until many 
lives had been sacrificed. 

There are two reasons to account for the difficulty in 
subduing Nanking. First, Nanking is a strongly fortified 
city; it has the advantage of being protected by a deep and 
wide moat and by a number of high hills which encircle 
it. Unlike ordinary city-walls in China, this wall around 
Nanking follows the course of the surrounding hills and is 
built of stones as well as of bricks. Such a solid construc- 
tion naturally hinders opponents from coming in or near 
the city. The top of this massive structure, where I walked, 
is wide enough to accommodate six horses trotting abreast. 
The city of Nanking (literally South Capital), had been 
twice the capital of the Empire. It was the headquarters 
for the Taiping rebellion, another anti-Manchu outbreak of 
the country in 1850. The imperial army then besieged the 
city for over a year without success. At last, a subterra- 
nean tunnel was dug under the center of the city and then 
exploded by the imperialists. By this means was the city 
subdued. This happened about sixty years ago, and the 
Manchu government did not forget the painstaking work of 
conquering Nanking rebels. Consequently, the Tartar regi- 
ment of that city had been especially well organized and 
fully equipped with modern instruments of war. This is 

335 



336 C. VOONPING YUI 

one of the reasons why the revolutionists encountered hard 
bloody battles before success finally came. 

Second, the city has a Tartar general and a Chinese gen- 
eral, namely Tieh Lian and Chang Shun. Both were as 
loyal and submissive to the Manchus as their slaves, and 
also as cruel and brutal as tyrants. It was reported that 
even the slightest suspicion of helping the revolutionists 
would result in decapitation through the order of these 
enthusiasts. During the revolution many helpless and inno- 
cent persons thus lost their lives in the city without 
specification of their crimes or discrimination of right from 
wrong according to law. When the country was every- 
where teeming with revolutionary spirit, Chang Shun and his 
fellow officials still foolishly exerted their utmost energy to 
drill the army and the artillery and prepared to resist the 
invincible forces of the people. The imperial ofiicers thus 
invited strong opposition. 

For these two reasons, the people had to fight with all 
their might in order to bring back the laurels of triumph. 

How did I happen to witness a part of the bloody scene? 
I was connected with Nanyang College, Shanghai, as a resi- 
dent physician. I was then teaching a class in first aid. 
As soon as the revolution began in Shanghai, I organized a 
first aid corps, comprising twenty-four persons, some were 
my students, others my friends, and one was my brother. 
All aimed to carry on Red Cross work and all were volun- 
teers supplying their own funds. Although my companions 
and I lacked experience in such work, we were enthusias- 
tic. When the bad news of the recapture of Hankow by 
the imperialists reached Shanghai, we intended to start for 
that city. As many Red Cross members had done splendid 
work there, we found our services were more needed in 
Nanking where merciless fighting had already taken place. 
So we started for Nanking November 28, 1911, and met 
Bishop F. R. Graves, Dr. Geo. Deval, and Dr. Gaynor on 
our way. Besides the ordinary equipment such as dress- 
ings, blankets, stretchers, splints, hypodermics, etc., we 
brought along with us four big bales of clothing, consisting 
of underwear, coats and trousers which afterward proved 



EXPEEIENCES AT THE SIEGE OF NANKING 337 

most useful. When a helpless soldier bled through his 
shirt and uniform, he was encountering, first, the dangers 
of the hemorrhage and second, the shock from the cold 
and wet coat in the winter. The clumsy packages of cloth- 
ing were very serviceable after dressings for wounds were 
fixed up. 

We were not allowed to enter Nanking. We stayed near 
the revolutionary headquarters in a village called Marchin. 
For a couple of days we treated many wounded soldiers in 
that village. Serious cases, after temporary dressings were 
applied by us, had to be sent to the nearest improvised hos- 
pitals. The injured patriots we met then, were chiefly the 
fighters and survivors of the battles fought at Yu Hwa Dai 
and Tse Ching Shan, the two well-known hills where the 
imperialists treacherously hoisted white flags signifying their 
surrender. When the revolutionists marched forward to 
shake hands with them, they proved treacherous fighters. 
The unexpected opposition nevertheless acted as a stimu- 
lant, adding more energy and spirit to the revolutionists. 

In the midnight of November 30, the battle of Tien 
Pao Chen was fought. The field was rather distant from 
our lodging, only cannonading could be heard. We did not 
attempt to go out at night as the officers near our hut ad- 
vised us not to travel in the dark. We slept on hay and 
straw over night and marched to Tien Pao Chen next day. 
We met hundreds of wounded soldiers on the way and ren- 
dered our assistance wherever needed. In the beginning 
of our work, we had a registrar to note down the names of 
the injured soldiers, the character of the wound and the 
regiment to which they belonged. But later we found we 
had no time to waste on this unimportant registration, so 
we devoted our energy along more serviceable lines. We 
dispensed with the recording. Every one in our party had 
come to be an active member. 

I asked the veterans why they fought at midnight, an 
awkward hour for us to rescue efficiently. They said that 
Tien Pao Chen was a fortified hill and that an attack to be 
effective must necessarily be done at night, not in the day. 
Most of the bullet wounds I saw, were wounds made by 



338 C. VOONPING YUI 

bullets having passed entirely through the body. As I 
learned, those bullets must be made of steel else they would 
not have such penetrative powers. 

One of the soldiers had a bullet wound in the front of 
his right chest about one inch outside the nipple with an 
exit wound on the back about three inches away from the 
spinal column. I thought it must have penetrated the 
pleura and the right lung. But to my surprise, the bullet 
had run along the line of the fifth rib and come out without 
leaving any injury to the organ of respiration. 

Lucky men lived and survived even though they sustained 
severe wounds. Unlucky ones died on the spot when they 
thought themselves safe. There was a merchant uninten- 
tionally shot by a revolutionist during the fighting. The 
bullet went into the middle of his thigh, fractured the femur 
as it hit against the bone, and a second wound was made 
on the inner side of the thigh; continuing its course the 
bullet struck against the other thigh and penetrated through 
the muscles — a total of four wounds with a compound 
fracture resulting from a single bullet. I first saw him 
after he had been wounded four days. Septic inflamma- 
tion set in. The man refused any treatment whatever, 
and only said that he wanted to go home and die on his 
bed. 

When we were walking across a field, there were two 
persons far ahead of us; one was an old farmer and the 
other a small lad, possibly his grandson. It was so sad to 
see a cannon ball from a distant place fall like a shooting 
star on this poor couple and explode. When we reached 
the spot, there remained only the dead child, the old man 
had disappeared, probably cremated ahve. 

On December 1, we were directed to the Tiger Hill, 
which we reached after a six hours' walk. We visited the 
revolutionary general Li Tien Chan, who was very hospi- 
table and kind to us; after a moment's rest, he ordered his 
subordinate to accompany us to the soldiers' quarters, 
where the sick and the injured were lying, groaning in pain 
and suffering untold agony. We treated the urgent cases 
first and then one by one we tried our best to minister to 



EXPERIENCES AT THE SIEGE OF NANKING 339 

the others. The suffering men appreciated our work al- 
though we could not relieve them at once. 

When we got through our cases, we walked back to 
General Li's residence. This occupied forty-five minutes. 
Although it was a short journey, it was nevertheless a trying 
one and required much courage. The revolutionary and the 
imperial artillerymen were exchanging their shrapnel and 
shells from the Lion Hill to the Tiger Hill and vice versa. 
The sky above our heads was like a realm of meteors and 
shooting stars. We saw the shells striking the valley explode 
with loud noise and furious conflagration. I ordered my 
companions to walk far apart each, leaving an interval of 
fifteen to twenty feet and told my much scared brother 
that death was not so terrible as it was imagined, and that 
there should be no fear of cannon balls. Fortunately they 
struck only against the rocks and none of them hurt any of us. 

We passed the night at the foot of the hill and we slept 
in the room next to General Li. The beds and bedding 
that he provided for us, were much nicer than the straw 
and hay beds of the previous nights. As the residence was 
erected under the castle, every cannonade gave us a violent 
shake. The windows, the doors, the beds, the tables, in 
fact all the articles of furniture were in a jerky motion 
throughout the night, and the lamps on account of incessant 
jarring could not give light as desired. 

When we were sitting in the parlor, a soldier, panting 
as he entered the room, reported information which he had 
discovered and handed to the General a package of things 
obtained from the imperialists. He was warmly welcomed 
by his superior and was rewarded with a sum of three dollars 
for his skillful spying. 

General Li, as I learned from the veterans and the sur- 
vivors, captured this Tiger Hill with an infantry of two hun- 
dred men. Since then, he had to enlist every day a crowd 
of new comers from the imperial side as the ill-treatment of 
the Tartar general could not be tolerated even by his own 
people. They came to seek for refuge and to fight for 
liberty. The number of General Li's soldiers was increased 
to over 2000 when we were there. 



340 C. VOONPING YUI 

In the city of Nanking terror prevailed. Rumors reigned 
in the streets. Suspicions grew every now and then. Slaugh- 
ters were reported daily. Unmerciful tyrants wielded their 
power in such an abusive manner that no human being 
would side with the imperialists. Chang Shun was espe- 
cially faithful to the Manchu government. His faithful- 
ness came to an end when Nanking fell. 

Here is another instance that is worth mentioning. 
Though the guards of the castle on the Lion Hill were under 
the jurisdiction of Chang Shun, none of the gunners there 
would venture to attack their own countrymen on the Tiger 
Hill which was only about four miles distant. They knew 
that General Li had made his headquarters there, and 
that a large number of soldiers camped in the plains of the 
Tiger Hill. They understood their principle of love of 
brethren better than did their connnanders. Consequently 
when an order was given to bombard their sister hill, the 
gunners purposely aimed in a slightly different direction, 
so that the cannon-balls merely hit the impenetrable cliff 
or flew high up in the sky. They never intended to harm 
their brethren on the Tiger Hill. 

The imperial general learned their dissimulations and had 
two of them beheaded for disloyalty. But the rest of the 
gunners grew even more patriotic; they claimed that they 
would rather lose their heads than fire against their breth- 
ren. So another two were killed. Then the general super- 
vised the cannonading and found that his men would never 
aim directly at the enemy, so a third pair of patriots were 
decapitated. A noble sacrifice of six lives saved thousands 
of others simply for love of brothers. 

Action speaks louder than words and is always appre- 
ciated. The revolutionary gunners on the opposite side 
never tried to shower their shells on the Tiger Hill. Their 
shrapnel, on the contrary, were all directed to the Tartar 
town in the center of the city. Unless the Manchus surren- 
dered with their ammunitions, the people would not cease 
their cannonading. 

Such was the mutual understanding of the gunners on 
both sides. The Lion and the Tiger had secretly come to 



EXPERIENCES AT THE SIEGE OF NANKING 341 

an alliance. So a week of bombarding elapsed and the two 
hills, although but a short distance apart, had not injured 
each other's castles nor camps. 

December 2 was a bright and clear winter morning. The 
sky looked smiling. The sun sent down its golden rays 
as if to congratulate and console the hard fighting pa- 
triots. To our surprise and unexpected joy, a white flag of 
surrender was hoisted at 6 o'clock in the morning high up 
on the Lion Hill on the imperial side, with a three colored 
flag attached signifying welcome. In addition to the hoist- 
ing of the flags, the Lion Hill gunners fired two shells to 
open a part of the wall of the city and a third to the center 
of the Tartar town and a fourth to Pukow on the other side 
of the Yantze River where the imperial generals hid them- 
selves in the last days of the siege. 

With triumphant joy, the revolutionists took the pos- 
session of this old capital and made the Nanyang Exhibition 
Buildings the Administrative Halls. Peace began to reign 
and order followed gradually. When we walked into the 
city, we met a band of Amazon corps, wearing long unique 
uniforms, holding a newly designed banner, and marching 
into the Wai Feng Gate. Splendid work, as reported, was 
done by these masculine ladies, especially in throwing bombs 
and close fights. 

Our company, losing its way, did not visit the Tartar 
town, as we intended. We learned afterwards that it was 
fortunate that we did not visit this hazardous place, for 
the Manchus, before surrendering to us, had laid a number 
of bomb-chests, which were all exploded one by one, when 
unlucky folks stepped accidentally on them. 

We went, on December 4, to Pukow whete Chang Shun 
and his five hundred foot-soldiers took the train at the 
Tien Tsin Pukow Railway station and fled to the north 
early in the morning of December 2. There we attended 
about two score of wounded soldiers. Two days after we 
returned home, our bodies emaciated on account of the 
deprivation of nutritive food and the lack of sufficient sleep, 
as we had been compelled to live for several days on turnips 
and crackers and had to retire on uncomfortable beds. 



342 C. VOONPING YUI 

But the soldiers were much more exhausted, as proper nu- 
trition and rest were far beyond the possibility of their 
reach. The triumphant joys of those who had suffered for 
the Republic compensated them for hardships better than 
any material reward. 

The fall of Nanking was the beginning of the new govern- 
ment. During the truce between the revolutionists and 
the imperialists the latter had made thorough preparations 
and obtained new equipment. When it expired, they were 
able to take possession of the cities of Hankow and Hang- 
yang. Had the revolutionists failed in the siege of Nanking, 
it would have meant their end. The most critical hours 
were when my companions and myself were doing our work 
in the suburb of the city. Soon after the triumph, Sun 
Yat Sen took up his residence in this provincial capital, and 
the provisional republican form of government was for the 
first time in the Far East inaugurated with representatives 
from the different provinces of the country. 

As the fighting was carried on by troops from different 
sections of the nation, naturally the field of operations was 
extended to a vast area; and what I have related is only a 
fractional part of the occurrences and incidences of the 
whole campaign. I do not attempt to dwell on topics con- 
cerning happenings that I did not see for fear of misrepre- 
sentation or misinterpretation. 

To an observer of this revolution, it is interesting to 
notice that the spirit of the people of every corner of the 
nation favored the revolutionists. It may be said that 
every citizen was a revolutionist. It was most wonderfully 
impressed upon the minds of the whole populace that the 
old government had to lose and the revolutionists had to 
win; that the question of success or failure was a question 
of the life or death of the country at large, not a question 
of individual interest. On hearing the firing of rifles or 
the cannonading of guns, even the ignorant country folks 
would yell from the bottom of their hearts ''Woe to the 
government!" or ''Hail for the people!" 

How the Chinese, numbering one quarter of the human 
race, have been able to agree unanimously on the over- 



EXPERIENCES AT THE SIEGE OF NANKING 343 

throw of the Manchurian yoke; how the revolution has been 
completed m so vast a country in so short a space of time 
with comparatively so small a cost of life is really a mystery 
that no one can yet fully explain. 

Here I shall mention briefly some factors, which seem to 
me to be causes of the revolution. In tracing the remote 
causes, I must say that the general awakening of the con- 
servative Chinese began in the year 1894 when China was 
defeated in the Chino-Japan war. The second period of 
awakening began in 1900 when the allied troops besieged 
the capital of the empire. Since then, the tide of new learn- 
ing has rushed in with full speed until the minds of the 
scholars have been saturated with the translations from 
works of Montesquieu and of Rousseau, their brains have 
been permeated with the accounts of the lives of Peter the 
Great and of George Washington. It is the education that 
pushes the people ahead. Corruption of the government, 
however, was not a small contributing factor of this gigantic 
revolt. Everywhere the people realized the weakness and 
pessimism of the government which could never be trusted 
and would never raise the standard of the nation's prestige. 
Favoritism and bribery were almighty. The sluggish, self- 
ish and oppressive nature of the Manchu government had 
led us to overthrow it entirely, aiier gentle appealings were 
unsuccessfully and ineffectively resorted to. One of the im- 
mediate causes was the railway riot in Szechuan. The gov- 
ernment attempted to buy the people's bonds with the 
loans from foreign nations. The shareholders rejected this. 
The government applied force and oppression. Troops were 
summoned to fight against the disobedient people. This 
aggravated the revolutionary idea. Soon after, the revo- 
lution started in Wuchang. 

One of the factors last mentioned, although by no means 
of least importance, was the activity of the newspapers. 
They preached political sermons, awakened the people and 
informed them of the aggressiveness of some nations against 
our country, and encouraged the revolution from the be- 
ginning to the end. 

In conclusion, I would like to draw your attention to the 



344 C. VOONPING YUI 

fact that the Manchus, although our enemies for awhile, yet 
as soon as they gave up their arms, have been looked upon 
as our own countrymen, having the same privileges and 
rights as enjoyed by the Chinese. In additon to the royal 
pension and that for the imperial clan, we are supporting 
them individually with regular monthly allowances, as was 
done previously, until they are able to earn their livings. 
So it is manifest that one-eighth of the whole population of 
China is living parasitically at the expense of the rest. It 
has been calculated that this enormous sum of money 
would be sufficient to pay the indemnities of the past years, 
if we simply abolish this imperial clan payment. This is a 
matter of generosity and love of brethren which has sim- 
plified the revolution and shortened its course. 

As to the future of China, no observer has any doubt that 
the recent revolution marks the dawn of a new era. It 
would be only too natural that the country must take 
some time to recover peace and order. Soon a firm and 
responsible government will be established, the people united, 
integrity promoted, education enforced, natural wealth devel- 
oped, industry improved and commerce facilitated — every 
possible reform will be gradually carried out, and our rela- 
tions with other nations will be more intimate and friendly, 
especially with the sympathizing Americans, who assist and 
understand us better than other nations. Like American 
citizens and patriots of one hundred and thirty-seven years 
ago, we fought for freedom, liberty, and self-government. 
May the Coasts of the Pacific Ocean be the regions of the 
two Republics everlasting! May we join our hands closer 
and closer to keep the world at peace to encourage arbi- 
tration and to do away with war! 



THE EFFECT OF THE REVOLUTION UPON THE 
EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF CHINA 

By P. W. Kuo, M.A., Ex-President of Chinese Students' 
Alliance in America 

In describing China's early attempts to introduce mod- 
ern education a certain writer compared her to ''an infant 
sea-bather in the act of taking his first plunge, touching 
the water and then running away, wading out and then 
tearing back. He did not dare to succumb to the allure- 
ments of the fascinating element and though the sight of 
adult bathers frolicking and playing 'hide and seek' with 
waves shot an arrow of envy through him, he never under- 
took the attempt." This attitude, no matter how true it 
was at the beginning, was certainly not true at the dawn of 
the revolution. At that time China's attitude toward mod- 
ern education was not the attitude of the timid sea-bather. 
She had taken her first plunge, also the second, and even 
the third, and had fully determined to make modern edu- 
cation accessible to her people at any cost. Evidences of 
this attitude were seen on every hand. It was seen in the 
earnestness with which the government carried out its edu- 
cational policy and in the marvelous development of the 
modern educational system since its inception in 1905. It 
was seen in the rapid growth of popular interest toward 
education shown in the numerous gifts and benefactions 
given by the wealthy as well as the poor for the extension 
of educational privileges through the establishment of schools 
and colleges. It was seen in the presence of an increas- 
ingly large number of men and women who were willing 
to devote their time and talent to the advancement of 
modern education. These are but a few of the signs which 
clearly indicate that at the dawn of the revolution the atti- 
tude of China toward improving her educational system in 
modern lines was not at all equivocal and that modern edu- 

345 



346 p. w. Kuo 

cation had come to China to stay and to exercise its influ- 
ence over the life of the nation as well as that of the people. 

In order to appreciate fully the effect of the revolution 
upon the educational system of China, it is necessary to exam- 
ine first the status of education at the dawn of the revolu- 
tion. According to the third annual report of the ministry 
of education, published in 1911, there were in China during 
1910, 52,650 schools of different types, including normal, 
vocational and technical schools, with a student body num- 
bering 1,625,534, a teaching corps numbering 89,766, and a 
corps of administrative officers numbering 95,800. Aside 
from the schools there also existed during that year 69 
boards of education, 722 local, provincial, and national edu- 
cational associations, 1558 educational exhorting societies, 
and 3867 public lecture halls. The total income for educa- 
tional purposes during that year was Taels 23,331,171, and 
the expenditure for the same year was Taels 24,444,309. 
The educational property possessed by the government was 
valued at Taels 70,367,882. 

Some idea as to the quality of the work done in the schools 
of that period may be gained from many of the educational 
exhibits that were given in different parts of the country. 
At the Nanking Industrial Exhibition held in 1910, more 
than 34,000 pieces of articles, including apparatus, text- 
books, charts, drawings, hand-writings, etc., all products of 
schools, were collected and exhibited, and the list of prizes 
awarded to the articles at the exhibition shows that no 
less than 966 prizes, which is about half of the total number 
of prizes given out, were awarded to articles in the educa- 
tional exhibit. Much highly favorable comment was also 
received from educators of the west who visited the exhibit. 
A similar but smaller collection of educational articles was 
sent to the exhibition not long ago held in Italy, and there 
again many prizes were received owing to the high standard 
reached both in skill and in thought content. 

The status of education before the revolution is perhaps 
best seen in the influence which modern education had ex- 
erted upon the intellectual or thought life of the people. 
It is the opinion of many who are in a position to judge that 



THE EFFECT OF THE REVOLUTION UPON EDUCATION 347 

the schools and colleges of China contributed a great share 
to the revolutionary movement. Education evidently had 
created in the life of the students, both young and old, an 
intense dissatisfaction with things as they were and an 
earnest desire to better the condition of their country both 
socially and politically. Indeed, it has been repeatedly de- 
clared by Sun Yat-sen and others prominent in the revolu- 
tionary cause, that education was the chief factor in the 
successful overthrow of the monarchy and the establish- 
ment of the republic. 

The revolution naturally caused a temporary cessation of 
educational activity. Much or all of the funds intended 
for the maintenance of educational institutions had to be 
used for the support of the armies. In consequence, the 
activities of a large number of schools and colleges were 
either suspended or seriously crippled, especially those sit- 
uated near the centers of disturbance such as Chentu, Han- 
kow, Wuchang, Nanking, Canton, and Peking. During the 
days of storm and stress, many of the school buildings were 
used as soldiers' quarters, and in not a few cases the entire 
schools were destroyed, with their books and apparatus 
looted and scattered. A large number of students volun- 
teered for service in the field, either by forming themselves 
into new regiments, or by joining the regular army. Some 
of them even became influential leaders of the revolution. 
An equally large number of students organized associations 
for securing contributions of money toward the war fund. 
It was reported that the students of one college in south 
China alone in one campaign collected more than $40,000 
toward the maintenance of the republican army. Still 
others volunteered to give lectures in public with a view to 
supply the people with the facts of the revolution and to 
instruct them in the principles of a republic, as well as the 
duties of their new citizenship. Thus during the short revo- 
lutionary period the cause of education received a hard blow 
from which it has not yet fully recovered. 

As soon as the provisional government was established 
in Nanking, the matter of education received its serious 
attention. Tsai Yuan-pei, for five years a student in the 



348 p. w. Kuo 

University of Leipsic, and a man recognized as one who 
had much abihty and experience in educational affairs, was 
appointed as the first minister of education. While the 
Shanghai Peace Conference was still in session and the ulti- 
mate fate of the country was still weighing in the balance, 
the new minister of education issued a circular to the repub- 
lican governors urging them the importance of the resump- 
tion of educational work. He outlined a set of temporary 
regulations for the guidance of the educators of the nation, 
the most important of which stipulate: (1) In the first 
grade of elementary education boys and girls are to be al- 
lowed to attend the same schools. (2) Classical studies are 
to be abrogated in elementary education. (3) Elementary 
handicraft departments shall have especial attention. This 
same Tsai Yuan-pei later became the minister of education 
on the first cabinet of Yuan Shih-kai after the latter was 
elected provisional president of the new republic; but as a 
consequence of the resignation of Premier Tang Shao-yi, he 
was soon obliged to resign from his office. The vacancy 
left by him was filled by Fan Yuan Lien, who was then 
serving as vice-minister of education. Fan is a native of 
Hunan and a returned student from Japan. He was known 
as a man who was most familiar with the work of the min- 
istry of education, having served the ministry under the 
Manchu dynasty in the capacity of a secretary. He was 
therefore not ill prepared to perform the task which fell 
upon him, namely, to reorganize the educational system of 
the country. 

One of the first tasks in the reconstruction of the educa- 
tional system has been the reorganization of the central 
administrative organ, namely, the ministry of education in 
Peking. The ministry as now reconstructed differs from the 
one in existence before the revolution in that it is less com- 
plex and less highly centralized. The ministry has at its 
head the minister of education, who has general charge of all 
matters relating to education and to the general supervision 
of all the schools of the country, together with all public 
buildings under the immediate control of the ministry. The 
minister is assisted by many officers. Aside from those 



THE EFFECT OF THE REVOLUTION UPON EDUCATION 349 

officers that are common in all ministries, there are pro- 
vided 16 inspectors and 10 experts in art and science (2 chief 
and 8 regular experts). The inspectors are appointed by 
the president of the republic at the nomination of the min- 
ister, and the experts are appointed by the minister himself. 
The work of the ministry is apportioned to one general 
council and three bureaus, instead of five bureaus as was 
the case before the revolution. The general council has 
special charge of all matters relating to schools under the 
direct control of the ministry, teachers in public schools, 
educational associations, investigations and compilations, 
school hygiene, repair and building of school library, school 
museum, and educational exhibits. The three bureaus are 
as follows: (1) general education: (2) technical or profes- 
sional education; and (3) social education. The bureau of 
general education is in charge of all matters relating to 
normal school, middle school, primary school, kindergarten, 
and schools for all forms of defectives, including the deaf 
and the blind. It is also in charge of matters relating to 
children's attendance at school and the selection and certi- 
fication of teachers. The bureau of technical or professional 
education has charge of all affairs relating to university and 
college, higher technical school, the sending of students 
abroad, the national observatory and the preparation of the 
governmental almanac, the society of doctors of philosophy, 
the association for the unification of the mother tongue, the 
association of examiners of medical doctors and pharma- 
cists. In addition, this bureau has control of all matters 
relating to societies of arts and science and the conferring 
of degrees. The bureau of social education is in charge of 
all affairs relating to correction of public ceremonies, mu- 
seums, libraries, zoological and botanical gardens, fine arts 
museums and exhibits, music, literature and the stage, the 
investigation and collection of relics, popular education and 
public lecture bureaus, public and circulating libraries, and 
last of all the compilation, the investigation, and the plan- 
ning of popular education. 

With the reorganization of the ministry there has taken 
place a change in the educational system itself. In the 



350 p. w. Kuo 

course of a few months the ministry drew up one after 
another four different schemes. The final one which was 
submitted to the Central Educational Conference for dis- 
cussion, provides the following: Primary elementary school, 
four years, ages 6-9; higher elementary school, three years, 
ages 10-12; middle school, four years, ages 14-16; college 
preparatory, three years, ages 17-19; and college proper, 
three or four years, according to the nature of the course, 
ages 20-22 or 23. It also provides two types of normal 
schools, the normal school with a course of four years, and 
one year of preparatory course, ages 13-17; and the higher 
normal having a course of three years and one year of pre- 
paratory course, ages 17-20. Two kinds of industrial 
schools are also specified, each having a course of three years, 
ages 10-12 and 13-15. Of the technical schools there are 
provided one preparatory course of one year, age 17, and 
the technical course proper lasting three or four years ac- 
cording to the nature of the course, ages 18-20 or 21. The 
scheme given received the endorsement of the Central 
Educational Association with the exception of the college 
preparatory course which the conference urged to have 
shortened from three years to one year. For one reason or 
another this recommendation of the conference was not 
accepted and the plan as given above has since been officially 
made the new educational scheme for the republic. It is 
to be noticed here that according to this new plan the 
length of time required to go through this entire educational 
system from primary school up through the university will 
be shortened to fifteen or sixteen years from that of twenty- 
three years which was the period required under the system 
existing before the revolution. 

The next step of importance taken by the ministry was 
the promulgation of the aim of education, which shows a 
fundamental change from the one upheld for centuries by the 
old conception, which was to make royal subjects of those 
who go to school and to inculcate in them ideas of loyalty 
to the emperor, honor for Confucius, high estimation for the 
warlike, and respect for that which is practical. Education 
is now to be conceived as a means of cultivating virtuous 



THE EFFECT OF THE REVOLUTION UPON EDUCATION 351 

or moral character in the young. This moral training is to 
be supplemented by an industrial and military education 
and rounded out by an asthetic education. The chief em- 
phasis is then placed on the cultivation of a moral or vir- 
tuous character (tao teh). Just what is meant by "tao 
teh" one is left to interpret for himself, but it is sufficiently 
clear that it refers to public morality or virtues, for the 
center of interest in providing such an education is said to 
be for the welfare of the state, so long that education does 
not impede the progress of the world and interfere with the 
development of the individual. In broader terms, 'Hhe 
general education aims at spreading modern knowledge to 
all young nationals in order that they may be qualified 
for citizenship. The higher education is directed toward 
cultivating the habit of regarding learning as sacred." This 
conception of education found its echo in the three personal 
messages of the minister issued to the educational admin- 
istrative officers, teachers, and students of the country. 

As a result of this change of spirit and aim of education, 
many interesting problems have arisen. All reference 
books and text books relating to the Manchu reign, con- 
taining sentiments and ideas which are in any way incon- 
sistent with the spirit of republican form of government, 
have either to be discarded or modified. Enterprising pub- 
lishers and text-book writers are not slow to recognize the 
fresh avenues of profit and are busy preparing new text- 
books of a new kind to meet the new demand. Already 
many of these so-called republican readers have been placed 
on the market and are enjoying a popularity unexcelled by 
any other text books. In Kuangtung and several other 
provinces even the use of the old governmental almanacs 
had been prohibited for the reason that they contain much 
material that is superstitious and is therefore not fitted for 
the citizens of the republic. This objection, together with 
the fact that the western calendar has been adopted in 
place of the old one, has necessitated the preparation and 
publication of a new kind of official almanac for use among 
the people. 

Since the organization of the new ministry of education, 



352 p. w. Kuo 

it has been making attempts to restore the status of educa- 
tion in China. Among other activities, it sent a deputy to 
Japan to study the method adopted there for recognizing 
the work of mission schools. During the sumimer of 1912 
it arranged and conducted a series of lectures in the capital 
for the benefit of students and others who were inclined to 
study and had spare time at their disposal. It also ordered 
the provincial educational authorities to start half day sum- 
mer schools for the same purpose. During the early part 
of the summer of the same year this ministry of education 
summoned a conference generally known as the Central 
Educational Conference to meet in Peking, July 10, to 
August 10. This conference was called for the purpose of 
obtaining the knowledge, experience, and result of delibera- 
tion of the educators of the country with a view to promote 
the cause of education, hasten its progress, and help the 
government to adopt a sound educational policy. In order 
to insure the highest efficiency and best result from the con- 
ference, every effort was made to secure fully qualified men, 
including graduates of normal schools in China or abroad, 
who have had at least three years of experience in teaching, 
and educators of national renown. The delegation of the 
conference was chosen according to the following manner: 
Two from each of the twenty-two provinces and also from 
Mongolia and Tibet; one representing Chinese residing 
abroad; fifteen from teachers and administrative officers of 
schools under the direct control of the ministry of education; 
ten from the ministries of interior, finance, agriculture, com- 
merce, and industry, army and navy; and others specially 
invited by the ministry of education. The conference was 
conducted under the direction of the minister. Among the 
problems presented for discussion were the following: School 
government; division between central control and local con- 
trol of schools; education of Mongolians, Turkestans, and 
Tibetans ; the giving of special privileges to elementary school 
teachers and the certification of elementary school teachers; 
the worshipping of Confucius, the adoption of a national 
anthem, and the organization of higher school educational 
conference. In all, ninety-two problems were submitted to 



THE EFFECT OF THE KEVOLUTION UPON EDUCATION 353 

the conference for solution, but during the nineteen regular 
meetings that were held, only twenty-three more important 
ones of these were satisfactorily settled and recommended 
to the ministry of education. Although the body of edu- 
cators forming the delegation of the conference were in- 
vested with no legislative power, nevertheless, the sugges- 
tions and recommendations made to the ministry after 
careful deliberation exerted a strong influence over the edu- 
cational policy of the country, as could easily be seen by 
comparing the resolutions of the conference with the meas- 
ures of reorganizing the educational system put into force 
after the closing of the conference through the various edu- 
cational ordinances made public. 

Before passing from the Central Educational Conference, 
it is interesting to note a controversy which came before 
the conference for settlement. Early in the summer it was 
noised abroad that Mr. Chung Wing Kwong, commissioner 
of education in the Kwangtung province, was sending an 
official delegate to the Central Educational Conference 
charged with the task of urging the conference to endorse 
the idea that in the future the public schools of China should 
not permit the worshipping of Confucius on the ground that 
all religions should be excluded from the schools; for this 
is the trend of the leading republican nations, and more 
and more the governments of these enlightened countries are 
excluding religion from the sphere of national education 
and priests from interfering therein. The suggestion, which 
is but a sign of the new movement toward general reform, 
that the government authorities have been pushing forward 
with great rapidity, proved to be too radical not only to the 
conservative Chinese, but also to some of the more cautious 
of the progressives. Immediately protests were raised from 
all directions. Many sent appeals to Chung Wing Kwong 
pointing out the mistake which, in their opinion, he was 
making in advocating not to permit Confucius to be wor- 
shipped by the students. These protests, however, were 
but the opening shots in the warfare. In Canton, the mat- 
ter was brought before a large gathering of the members 
of the assembly, who apparently were united in their wish 



354 p. w. KTJO 

that such a course should be resisted. At this meeting it 
was agreed that as Confucianism is not a religion, therefore 
it is wrong to class Confucius with the founders of religion, 
and that it is an insult to class Confucianism with these 
religions, for Confucius had nothing to do with inducing 
men to worship the gods. His influence was all on the side 
of virtue and knowledge; therefore his influence should be 
extolled and the sphere of his influence enlarged. In spite 
of these protests, the matter was duly brought before the 
Central Educational Conference, and, contrary to the expec- 
tation of many, the conference strongly endorsed the sug- 
gestion made by the commissioner of education in Canton, 
and recommended that the clause providing for the worship 
of Confucius in public schools be omitted from the new 
school law. That this recommendation has been accepted is 
shown by the fact that in the educational ordinance regard- 
ing rites and ceremonies used in school, a very significant 
injunction occurs, namely, that in the observance of anni- 
versaries of any kind, no worshipping and religious cere- 
mony of any kind are to be used. 

The educational activity of the ministry of education 
has been, to a great extent, curtailed or handicapped by the 
financial stress of the central government. According to 
the budget prepared for the new republic, an annual sum 
of Taels 12,801,468 was provided for the ordinary expendi- 
ture in educational affairs. In addition, a sum of Taels 
3,348,061 was specified to cover the necessary provisional 
expenditure. Considering the gigantic task that is before 
the ministry, the allowance made for education is by no 
means liberal, and even the fund thus specified has been 
thus far slow in coming during the present period of read- 
justment. For this reason the ministry of education has 
been somewhat slow in carrying out what it proposes to do. 
Meanwhile it has been devising means not only to eliminate 
as much waste as possible, either by abolishing institutions 
that have outlived their usefulness or by combining forces, 
but also to exercise the strictest economy in the administra- 
tion of educational funds. Thus the Hanlin Academy in 
Peking, once the center of literary activity and the chief 



THE EFFECT OF THE REVOLUTION UPON EDUCATION 355 

seat of the educational system of China, has been recently- 
abolished. No students from the Tsing-hua College were 
sent abroad during the past year. The ministry, however, 
is doing its best, so far as its financial condition would 
allow, to restore the institutions which come under its direct 
control. The Peking University has been reopened. This 
is also true with the Tsing-hua College in Peking, and com- 
petitive examinations were held last summer with a view to 
selecting a number of students to be trained before sending 
them to America to study. The central government has 
also been able to send abroad twenty-five of the revolution- 
ary leaders to receive a western education; fourteen of 
these have come to America. 

In the provinces the financial stress is less stringent than 
the central government, and efforts for the extension of 
educational privileges and facilities have been pushing for- 
ward with considerable rapidity. Provincial as well as local 
educational associations are showing great activity. Dur- 
ing the month of August 1912, examinations were held in 
Tsinanfu, Shantung province, for students who are desirous 
of being sent to the United States for college education. 
The Kwangtung province, in spite of its financial stress, 
managed to send during the past summer 100 students 
abroad, 20 to America, 10 to Europe, and 70 to Japan. 
The Kiangsi provincial government has recently sent 60 
students abroad for advanced study. Of this number, 16 
were sent to America, 1 to England, 1 to Germany, 2 to 
France, 2 to Belgium, and the rest to Japan. Early in the 
year of 1912, the Commercial Press in Shanghai undertook 
to supply a Chinese educational exhibit for the Teachers' 
College of Columbia University. An announcement of the 
fact was made by the said press, and within the course of 
two or three months, some six hundred schools responded 
and over seven thousand articles were sent in. Before the 
exhibit was sent from Shanghai, an opportunity was given to 
the public to visit it, and in the course of three days over 
ten thousand people availed themselves of the opportunity, 
showing something of the enthusiasm of the people toward 
things educational. These and other facts which might be 



356 p. w. Kuo 

mentioned, indicate clearly that the provincial authorities, 
as well as the people, fully realize the importance of educa- 
tion in the national life of the new republic and are exerting 
every effort to develop the system of education both ex- 
tensively and intensively. 

At present the government and the people show a strong 
tendency to emphasize primary education. Some adjust- 
ments and combinations are being planned in higher educa- 
tion, and the money thus saved will be devoted to the estab- 
lishment of more primary schools of both grades in order to 
hasten universal education, which is the goal of the new edu- 
cational policy and is a problem which has loomed large in 
the minds of the Chinese statesmen and educators since the 
establishment of the republic. The charge has often been 
made to the effect that in introducing modern educational 
institutions, China made the mistake of starting at the top 
and building downwards, and in her anxiety for universi- 
ties, high schools, and middle schools, she overlooked the 
importance of the primary schools. Assuming this charge 
to have been true, the mistake is now being remedied and 
primary education is now receiving the attention which it 
deserves. 

One more important tendency remains to be noted. The 
statesmen and educators of China, realizing that manifold 
difficulties are still standing in the way to make education 
accessible to all, and that the stability of the republic is 
largely dependent upon the intelligence of its citizens, are 
now emphasizing the importance of popularizing educa- 
tion through means other than the school, such as news- 
papers, art galleries, theatres, public gardens, museums, 
libraries, zoological and botanical gardens, public lectures, 
and moving pictures. It is their belief that these quasi- 
educational institutions will be able to exert a strong influ- 
ence of educational value to the uneducated men and women 
as well as those children who are unable to go to school, and 
that through these institutions a mighty social revolution 
could be effected. Already movements to put these ideas 
into practice have been reported. Early in the spring of 
last year, the formation of the Social Reform Association 



THE EFFECT OF THE REVOLUTION UPON EDUCATION 357 

was announced. Among the organizers of that associa- 
tion are such distinguished men as Premier Tang; minister 
of navy, Liu; minister of education, Tsai; minister of agri- 
culture and forestry. Sung; and others equally prominent in 
the political and educational life of the new republic. In 
an article announcing the formation of the said associa- 
tion, some thirty-six different social problems were given as 
reforms which, in the opinion of the association, should be 
vigorously advanced. In Kwangtung and several other prov- 
inces, the provincial educational authorities have appointed 
through competitive examination, a number of lecturers 
to give popular lectures on topics such as self-govern- 
ment, education, hygiene, and philanthropy. Attention has 
already been called to the fact that the present ministry of 
education has a bureau, known as the bureau of social 
education, the duty of which is to advance the whole move- 
ment, namely, to popularize education through quasi-edu- 
cational institutions. 

This treatment of the educational situation created by the 
revolution is necessarily incomplete. Perhaps enough has 
been said to indicate the fact that the work of reconstruction 
in education, as in other phases of China's national life, has 
already well begun and begun with a great determination to 
win. The problem of supplying educational facilities to 
China's millions is so gigantic in its scope and so complicated 
in its character, that it calls for not only the highest pro- 
fessional skill, but a great deal of enthusiasm, patriotism, 
and altruism for its successful solution. The system existing 
today, being still in its infancy, is naturally full of imper- 
fections and has plenty of room for improvement, especially 
when it is compared with the systems of other enlightened 
nations, most of which have taken centuries of adjustment 
and toil before reaching their present stage of excellence, 
and even they still have some room for improvement. 
New China, however, is confident that given sufficient time 
she will be able to work out her own salvation in spite of 
the fact that the problem is fraught with difficulties. For 
the present she needs time to regain her breath from the 
shock which she experienced in the transition from monarchy 



358 p. w. Kuo 

into republic. She needs time to consider what are the 
best elements in western education which could be utilized 
to her best interests, and what are the best elements in her 
own system which have proved best for China through the 
centuries of her history and which should be preserved with 
all vigor and tenacity. In short, she needs time to read- 
just herself to the new conditions which now surround her. 
Meanwhile, young China beheves that help and cooperation 
from the educators of the West are not only highly desirable 
but in a way indispensable to a speedy success. For 
this reason she favors and welcomes every effort put forth 
by all well-wishers of China toward the solution of the 
problem and the attainment of the high ideal which she 
has set before her. From the teachers and educators of 
the West China expects to find sjnnpathy and encourage- 
ment which come with the consciousness of a common pur- 
pose, and to gain, in no small measure, the inspiration of 
their highest ideals. 



MORAL AND SPIRITUAL ELEMENTS IN THE 

CHINESE REVOLUTION AND IN THE 

PRESENT OUTLOOK 

By Rev. Charles L. Storrs, Shaowu, China, Foochow Mission 

Two or three years before the outbreak of the Revolution' 
a non-Christian editor in one of his leaders on ''China's 
Needs" in the Chung Wai Jih Pao wrote: ''Many are talking 
of revolution .... Has it been considered that 
we in China have had far more revolutions than they in 
Europe? Europe has always gained by its revolutions, but 
we have gained no national uplift from ours. Why? Be- 
cause of the absence of what has characterized European 
revolutions — moral and spiritual forces." It is the object 
of this address to show that such elements have not been 
absent from the overturning of the past twelvemonth among 
that remarkable people. If what this Chinese editor says 
is true, then the events of 1911 and 1912 stand out unique 
not only among the fifty-three attempts which since the 
first in 1646 engineered by the "Heaven and Earth Society" 
have aimed to depose the now abdicated Ta Ching dynasty, 
but unique in the long history of 4906 years — the date under 
which the republicans in their enthusiams issued their first 
proclamations. 

There will be no attempt to separate moral from spiritual 
forces. Indeed spiritual or religious elements as such do not 
seem to have entered into the stream of events. Neither 
is it thought to show how the whole movement has been 
undergirt with certain great moral laws and that the out- 
come has been a logical consequence of them. Sufficient 
for our purpose if from the keleidoscopic rush of events, we 
can seize hold here and there of a few of those golden strands 
of human activity that give life its true significance, untwist 
some of the more important ones to reveal more clearly their 
component ethical threads, and so come to realize that it 

359 



360 CHARLES L. STORES 

is these that have held the whole together. In this way the 
conviction will come to us that the significance of the Revolu- 
tion in China lies not in the immense number of people 
involved, not in the magnitude nor richness of the territory, 
not in the uniqueness nor swiftness of its outward accom- 
plishment, but in the coming into this great complex world 
of men and things in which we live of a new factor, the 
greatest, the most bewildering of any that have yet entered 
in. That factor is the Chinese people setting their feet in 
the paths that the eternal laws of moral development have 
laid down for human destiny. 

1. First then among the more apparent moral and spiritual 
elements of the Chinese Revolution must be mentioned 
enlightenment, coming primarily through western education. 
Diplomacy and trade would claim but a small share in this 
contribution. The part that western education has played 
fostered first and foremost by Christian missions, and since 
1905 an objective to which both government and people 
have given themselves unstintedly, will be adequately 
treated in other addresses of this conference. It needs to be 
given a logical and strong emphasis here because, just as 
the conscience and personality of an individual can receive 
no large or true development aside from increasing intelli- 
gence, no more the ethical and national ideals of a people. 
Yet fascinating as is the theme, I yield it the more readily 
remembering that enlightenment as the equipment of the 
young Turk party seems not to have fulfilled the promise of 
their brilliant constitutional movement, and Japan, with an 
average of school attendance that outdoes some states of 
our own loved America, felt constrained by the ethical wab- 
bliness of its modern society last February to call a meeting 
of the leaders of its three great rehgions to see if the moral 
foundations might not be made more secure. Still it is 
not without significance that the overturning in China is 
often spoken of as a students' revolution. 

Aside from the part that modern education has played in 
thus enlightening the Chinese people there ought to be men- 
tioned right here the tremendous influence of the periodicals 
and books of the Christian Literature Society and in a lesser 



MORAL ELEMENTS IN CHINESE REVOLUTION 361 

measure the various tract societies. Put with these the 
hundreds of Chinese newspapers, good and bad, and it 
becomes less difficult to understand how new ideas permeated 
the whole country. x^Kang Yy Wei, who after the imprison- 
ment of his master, the former emperor, Kuang Hsu, from 
Japan directed the fortunes of the so-called "Reform" 
party, had newspapers in nearly every treaty port and 
although harried by the officials, found haven in the foreign 
concessions or in Hongkong and continued his propaganda, 
almost as revolutionary as that of the republicans themselves, 
up to the commencement of the struggle. } 

The revolutionaries had the keenest appreciation of the 
moral value of publicity. From the first they took not 
only the people but foreign powers into their confidence. A 
first move of their provisional government was to appoint 
one of their cleverest, best informed men, Wu Ting Fang, 
former minister at Washington, as their minister of foreign 
affairs. To him and another of their best leaders. Wen Tsung 
lao, they gave the task of keeping the outside world informed 
as to the inwardness from the revolutionary view point of 
each event or complication. In the most critical hour of 
the struggle when, with the utmost good will for Yuan 
Shi Kai and his cause, the powers hesitated to let him receive 
any financial backing, these men checkmated every move 
that Peking made by the sympathy for their cause in the 
world at large, and by showing the courts and cabinets 
abroad just what grip they had on the south and the Yantse 
valley with all the commerical interest of foreigners involved. 
A little of it may have been what Americans call ''bluff," 
but the game was not played in the dark, so far as they were 
concerned, and the forces of light with their concomitants 
of sympathy and trust seemed predestined to win. 

2. After enlightenment as a moral element in the Chinese 
Revolution must be mentioned a new stirring and vigor of 
moral conscience. 

It is rather startling to find that/of the ten shortcomings 
for which Dr. Sun Yat Sen specifically arraigned the Ta 
Ching dynasty eight are distinct charges of moral failure. 
Even the other two the second, — "they have opposed our 



362 CHARLES L. STORKS 

intellectual and material progress;" — and the sixth, — ''they 
suppress liberty of speech" — are at no great remove from 
the moral realm. ^ The avariciousness of the imperial clan 
was so great that^^even in their hour of supreme distress when 
Yuan Shi Kai had exhausted every resource to obtain 
money absolutely necessary to prevent the government from 
falHng into anarchy with an unpaid soldiery, it did not occur 
to any of them to offer help from their immense accumula- 
tion of treasure. Yuan had to go personally and beg a 
paltry 6,000,000 taels, enough at best to tide things over less 
than a month. Yet when the comptroller of the household 
made his report after the death of Tze Hsi, the old dowager 
empress, the privy treasure was 12,000,000 taels gold, and 
990,000,000 taels silver. It is said also that the princes 
had deposits in foreign banks amounting to $6|5',000,000. 
However that may be, it is certain that Duke TasiTao, 
brother of the regent, whom he had placed over the war office, 
grew fabulously rich through his sales of commissions in 
less than three years. So extreme did the evil become that 
the revolutionaries were able before the struggle to put 
their generals in command of the most important divisions 
and brigades of the army. The fact that, when the crisis 
came and some of the princes were still for fighting it out, 
forty-six generals of the northern army sent a telegram 
demanding the abdication of the throne and the setting up of 
a republican form of government, shows that many of those 
generals still held their commissions, as well as suggests a 
suspicion that Yuan had come to the place where he could 
play on the winning side, j 

^ Trom top to bottom official life in China was unthinkably 
corrupt. Sir Robert Hart, than whom no westerner better 
knew the inside of officialdom, said that if the revenues of 
China were honestly collected and honestly administered they 
would go six times as far as they did. > 

Personally I feel very certain that (the splendid sweep of 
the anti-opium movement through the length and breadth 
of the land had very much to do with this quickening of the 
moral conscience against the 267 years of misrule which the 
Manchus had given China. That great reform, already 



MORAL ELEMENTS IN CHINESE REVOLUTION 363 

four-fifths made good, and accomplishing more in its five 
years of agitation than we in America have with a hundred 
years of our toying with the Uquor evil, surprised not only 
the western world; it surprised the Chinese people them- 
selves. It revealed reserves of moral power of which they 
had not been conscious.^ 

It was hardly a fair indictment of the Manchus made by 
Ma Soo, secretary to Dr. Sun when president of the provi- 
sional government, to say at a great republican rally regard- 
ing the new compact with Great Britain, signed May 8, 
1911, "The opportunity (to free China) came, but they 
(the Manchus) would not take it. They sold their people 
for an increased revenue of 35 1) taels per chest of opium;" 
for from the beginning the throne had shown earnestness 
and sincerity in this great reform. It was rather the scorn 
and unfaith of Great Britain that the revolutionaries should 
have pointed to. 

''Heaven hears through the ears of the people" was a 
quotation from their most ancient philosopher, Shun, that 
the Chinese often had thrust at them during those months 
and years of waking moral consciousness. They were 
but living up to their highest and noblest traditions when, 
with the plain evidences of hopeless misrule on everyhand 
and blind and stubborn opposition to all sound progress 
clearly manifest, they came to realize that "heaven had 
withdrawn its favor" from their rulers, and accordingly 
prepared their vials of wrath. 

(;^Mr. Yung Wing, so intimately connected with Chinese 
student Ufe in America since its inception in 1872, in a 
letter to a friend shortly before his death in Hartford, Con- 
necticut, April 12, 1912, wrote, — "The late political revolu- 
tion in its sweep over eighteen provinces has accomphshed 
two wonderful historical facts of the century, one the down- 
fall of the Manchu dynasty, the other the rising up of the 
Chung Hua RepubUc; neither of which can be possible 
without our full recognition of God in human history. The 
laws which govern the rise and fall of principalities and 
empires have been foreordained by the Deity himself; and 
when a dynasty like the Manchu was swept away like chaff 



364 CHARLES L. STORKS 

before the whirlwind, we may be sure that the dynasty has 
violated some of the fundamental principles of the moral 
universe. Upon investigation we will find that the Manchu 
Dynasty since its supremacy over the Chinese Empire 
for nearly three centxu-ies have not observed justice to the 
people, nor righteousness, nor equality, nor truth. If the 
Manchus had been scrupulous in maintaining the cardinal 
virtues in their administrative system as taught by Con- 
fucius and the sages of old, they would never have been 
allowed to abdicate." - From words like these it is easy to 
see how such a roused moral consciousness as we have been 
noting rises clearly into the spiritual realm. 

From what has been said it must not be concluded that 
the revolution was a great white crusade. There were 
plenty of rascals who simply went on following their own 
fortunes with the new turn of the tide, and there was a 
great deal of blind and foolish enthusiasm that the country 
had found the panacea for all its woes and weaknesses; but 
despite this we must not fail to note that the great moral 
motive firing the energies of most of the leaders and the best 
spirits was fundamentally sound and high, much more so 
than the commercial, land hungry diplomacy of the repre- 
sentatives of the powers encamped in Peking. 

3. A third moral and spiritual element for us to note was a 
new, (almost intoxicating self consciousness among the Chinese 
people. This is in marked contrast with the inchoate spirit 
of old China. That led us to regard the nation as a mere 
congeries of land grubbing people. Just as the new China- 
man has come to a higher and clearer sense of personality 
than he has before known, so the whole country in its livest 
stratum of society showed that it had come to a higher plane 
of national consciousness. The very fact that the revolu- 
tion aimed simply at getting rid of the dynasty and not at 
setting up some great hero or deliverer on the throne is 
witness of this. China aimed to set herself in the chair of 
sovereignty, and that so large and able and representative 
a proportion of the people could and did respond to the ideal 
has startled the world. 

A new sense of unity then is one of the first things that 



MORAL ELEMENTS IN CHINESE REVOLUTION 365 

rivet our attention in this element of self-consciousness. Of 
course plenty of provincial jealousies and section differ- 
ences were brought into play but the fact that eventually 
they were successfully subordinated to the common ideal 
is the outstanding fact. Among the first pronouncements 
of the new government was one that a foremost aim should 
be the consolidation of the five races of which the inhab- 
itants of this tremendous land with some reason have re- 
garded themselves composed, making of the Hans, the Man- 
chus, the Mongohans, the Mohammedans, and the Tibetans 
one great homogeneous nation. They proclaimed the fact 
to the world in the stripes of their new flag. Even the van- 
quished Manchus were included without resentment in the 
new democratic ideal. 

In the early weeks of the revolution, the break-up of the 
country into small provincial republics seemed Uke a contra- 
diction of this spirit of unity. That view was due less to 
local ambitions, than to the misunderstandings by the out- 
siders of the real program of the revolutionaries which was 
not to sweep the country with fire and sword, but only to 
seize those positions of government and armed force which 
it was necessary for them to hold until such times as the suc- 
cess of the movement made the consolidation of the whole 
swift and sure. 

It is interesting to note that this new spirit of unity has 
none of the old exclusiveness or anti-foreign feeling in it. 
Indeed that element, heretofore thought undeniably char- 
acteristic of the Chinese is maintained to be wholly an 
accretion of Manchu misrule. Dr. Sun says in a recent 
article called ''My Reminiscences:" "People in Europe 
think that the Chinese wish to keep themselves apart from 
foreign nations, and that the Chinese ports could be opened 
only at the point of the bayonet. That is all wrong. His- 
tory furnishes us with many proofs that, before the arrival 
of the Manchus, the Chinese were in close relations with the 
neighboring countries, and that they showed no dislike to- 
ward foreign traders and missionaries. Foreign merchants 
were allowed to travel freely through the Empire. During 
the Ming dynasty there was no anti-foreign spirit." 



366 CHARLES L. STORKS 

The Republican Advocate one of the journals of the new 
day says in its first issue: ''The spirit which China has shown 
in her great struggle for pohtical Hberty has been appre- 
ciated by the West, and the friendly attitude of the western 
nations towards China has been equally appreciated. Our 
mission therefore is clear. Our policy is not antagonism 
hut cooperation. China desires to-be a free independent 
nation not in the old sense of isolation and exclusion, but in 
the more rational sense of unobstructed individual develop- 
ment on the basis of cooperation and reciprocity; and if we 
succeed in attaining this objective we shall have realized our 
cherished ambition." 

The world is still wondering that so soon after the cata- 
clysm of 1900, so great and portentous a struggle as this revo- 
lution could be carried through by the same people with 
hardly any hurt of foreign life or property. If with the 
queue and the kowtow the Chinese can shake off the Manchu 
bred disUke of the foreigner, and forget the foreigner's abomi- 
nable ill treatment of more than a century, he is showing 
us moral stamina of no mean order. 

Another element in this new self consciousness of the na- 
tion has been its rousing spirit of patriotism. That peculiar 
attachment of the heart for one's native land as superla- 
tively his own unexpectedly flowered forth in wide profusion. 
''Give us mountains and rivers" was a slogan constantly 
used against the hated Manchus and their corrupting 
grip on the whole inmost life of the land. The patience, 
persistence, and undaunted faith of the revolutionaries 
baffled in seventeen unsuccessful attempts to launch their 
program, but for fifteen years holding steadily and cannily 
to their course, and motived as the event has proved with 
much less of self-interest than similar upturnings in the 
world's history reveal, have shown a quality of patriotism 
in the Chinese of which the West little dreamed. Dr. Sun 
tells of a nameless Chinese laundryman who one evening 
after the great revolutionist had been addressing his fellow 
countrymen in Philadelphia, "called at my hotel, and 
thrusting a linen bag upon me went away without a word. 
It contained his entire savings for twenty years." As I 



MORAL ELEMENTS IN CHINESE REVOLUTION 367 

came away from China last December and touched at the 
various ports of the southeast coast, I found scores of well-to- 
do Chinese flocking back from the Straits Settlements, 
Saigon, Rangoon, Java, and the Philippines with their 
entire fortunes turned into available cash, ready to throw 
it and themselves into the struggle. Some of course were 
hotheads, some were chagrined to find the seats of the mighty 
already occupied, but the spirit of genuine patriotism which 
as a class they manifested made those of us in the south 
know that the end of the Manchu south of the Yangtse had 
already come. 

Something like the spirit of the crusades seemed to get 
hold of the students of government and mission institutions 
alike. Volunteer regiments were largely recruited from 
them and faster than they could be supplied with arms and 
equipment. President Edmunds showed us at breakfast 
this morning a photo print of a group of Canton Christian 
College students who in two weeks time raised $55,000, for 
relief of the government in its dire financial straits. School 
girls eluded their teachers and ran away to join uniformed 
Red Cross corps. The splendid heroism of some of the raw 
troops, who scarcely knew which was the firing end of their 
rifles, before the thoroughly drilled imperialists with their 
1911 German machine guns at Hankow is one of the most 
stirring things in war story. It is said that some battalions 
whose arms had not yet arrived actually went out upon the 
shell swept field as they were, so determined were they to 
die for their country. Never again will the West accuse the 
Chinaman of lack of patriotism. He has always had it, I 
think, but expressed in terms which we could not understand. 
Now it has been translated into our own speech.^ 

Another element in this new self consciousness of the 
Chinese is an aroused imagination. No one but a westerner 
who has come to know how the thought of a Chinese seems 
inexorably to flow in the mold made for it by the centuries, 
can feel what a tremendous moral asset is here. Many things 
have been contributing to it. I will mention only one, the 
use of English. English is the commercial and diplomatic 



368 CHARLES L. STORKS 

language of the Far East, and, as a remarkable edict some 
two years ago informed the startled world, the language of 
all higher education and research work for China. It would 
be interesting to follow up this line of thought. Enough here 
to remark that everyone engaged in school work in China 
will testify to the wonderful awakening effect that even a 
smattering of English seems to have on the mind of a Chinese 
boy or girl. A fine Chinese scholar, a Christian, who had 
received a thorough western education abroad, was asked 
by a missionary friend did he enjoy reading his bible the 
more in English or in his own language. His instant reply 
was ''My English Bible." ''Why?" "Because it is more 
spiritual," was the answer. 

A striking instance of this aroused imagination among the 
Chinese people is found\in that picturesque scene at the old 
Ming tombs near Nanking. There on the 18th of Febru- 
ary, the New Year's Day of the old calendar, with his minis- 
ter of war. General Huang Hsin, and the governor-general 
of the province, Dr. Sun escorted by a brilliant military 
parade made his way to the dilapidated mausoleum temple 
of old Emperor Hung Wu under the shadow of the Purple 
Mountain. To the spirits of the Ming dynasty — Emperor 
Hung Wu's remains had been lying in 500 years of neglect — 
he solemnly announced the end of the usurping dynasty and 
the restoration of the rights of the people to the nation. J 
Then he turned and in an address of characteristic modesty 
and frankness he told the multitude his reasons for la3dng 
down the presidency of the provisional repubhc. Here 
were the choicest, the leading spirits of the Revolution, 
linking up the best that was to be found in the traditions of 
the past with their ideals and ambitions for the future. It 
means much for a people when the power of an aroused 
creative imagination can do that. The boom of the saluting 
guns at the close taken up in succession down the long ave- 
nue of approach and away into the distant city seemed to be 
a promise that the applause and devotion of his auditors for 
these ideals should extend out into the life of all the people. 
The occasion had something of the character of a sacrament 



MORAL ELEMENTS IN CHINESE REVOLUTION 369 

in it, but Dr. Sun, fearing that his Christian friends might be 
disquieted, hastened to assure them that it had no rehgious 
significance whatever. 

This power of the creative imagination in New China 
seems also to have impressed the outside nations of the 
world. George Bronson Rea in his illuminating article on 
the revolution in the April issue of the Far Eastern Review 
tells us how in the thickest of the fight and during the great- 
est of the uncertainty, especially in Peking, the example of 
China as a republic was felt would be tremendous throughout 
the East. "It was urged that if China had reached the 
stage where it could take its place among the great republics 
of the world, and her millions of ignorant, benighted people 
were competent to assume the duties and burdens of a 
great republic, then Great Britain's policy in India was 
doomed to failure. The establishment and recognition of a 
Chinese Republic would increase the unrest in India, and 
the demand of the natives for a larger share in their own 
government would sooner or later break out into open revolt, 
and Britain would pay in India the price in blood and treas- 
ure for her vacillating poHcy in China. And by the same 
logic America would be called to modify her pohcy in the 
Philippines. "Of course all such generalizations overlook 
the essential differences in the types of civilizations and 
national characteristics involved, but it is certain that 
the events of the past twelve months in China have made 
every ruling house of Europe more thoughtful as to their 
own positions and duties. 

4. I hasten to a fourth and last moral and spiritual ele- 
ment in the situation closely allied to this aroused self-con- 
sciousness of which we have been thinking, — namely self- 
control. This in some aspects is an immemorial characteristic 
of the race but during the Revolution it found new and ap- 
pealing expression. Dr. Fong F. Sec, writing in the Mission 
Year Book of 1912 says: "The self-control shown was superb, 
and contrasted strangely with the behavior of the allied 
troops in 1900 — looting, ravaging, and shooting down of 
non-combatants. This has raised China in the estimation 
of the world and has raised the self-respect of the Chinese 



370 CHARLES L. STORES 

people." Despite the yellow journalism of America every- 
one now knows that this is true. Practically the only ex- 
cesses were conomitted by the imperial troops in the taking 
of Hankow, and by the revolted bands of northern soldiery 
later on. It was an entirely new experience to astonished 
Chinese farmer folk to find that a great brigade of revolu- 
tionary soldiers could pass through their towns and by their 
fields and leave them practically as before. I live in an 
inland prefectural city where wide spaces and crumbhng 
ruins both within and without the city walls are yet elo- 
quent of the ferocity of the Tai Pings who swept off two- 
thirds of the innocent population of that region in the 
fifties. It is no wonder that the ill-informed people of that 
city remembering the horrors of that earlier rebellion, before 
it was clear whether there was to be a battle with the Keh 
Ming Dangs (revolutionaries) for the possession of the city 
or not, removed nine out of ten of all their women folks to 
quieter places among the mountains and country villages. 
But it was a needless fear. Their only foes were their own 
neighbors who might take such an occasion to pay off old 
grudges, Chinese fashion. 

History I think does not show a parallel when so tremen- 
dous an overturn took place with so brief and bloodless a 
contest. In all the battles of the revolution put together 
fewer men lost their lives than in any one battle of our great 
civil war. The revolutionaries were not after the blood of 
their enemies but after political control of the country. 
The post and telegraph service all through the south was 
left in undisturbed imperial administration long after com- 
plete military control had been established. In Foochow 
it did not seem to occur to the new authorities even to tinker 
with the names until more than a month after the two days' 
battle which put them in command. In many cases, as 
at Canton, the revolutionary leaders after recruiting their 
forces and amassing their supplies, had only to take deputies 
of the incredulous and astounded officials on a tour of 
inspection, to persuade those officials to sign over the sur- 
render papers, pack their trunks hastily and depart. It was 
their reliance on pacific methods that led the southern 



MORAL ELEMENTS IN CHINESE REVOLUTION 371 

forces at Wuchang and Hankow even when flushed with 
victory of arms to make the sorry strategic blunder of not 
severing the railroad connection from Peking. They could 
not conceive that those northern armies would actually 
fight their own brothers for the support of the detested Man- 
chus. 

This quality of self control not rarely rose into real magna- 
nimity. The banner men of the Tartar city in Foochow after 
the brief unequal struggle, and their disarmament and regis- 
tration, actually had their old pensions paid to them out of 
the precarious income of their victors, until such time as they 
might be able to become self-supporting at trades and handi- 
crafts. Contrast that with the extermination traditionally 
meted out to the vanquished in Chinese history. In the 
final adjustment with the abdicated throne, generous pen- 
sions were apportioned to all members of the ruling house, 
and the baby emperor was even allowed to retain his title. 
The greatest single instance of this magnanimity of spirit, 
one that will forever shine in the pages of modern history 
was of course the resignation of his high office by Sun Wen 
(the name by which Dr. Sun Yat Sen is known in China) 
when at the height of his popularity and successful endeavors, 
that the breach with the north might be healed and his 
loved country give itself without delay to the tremendous 
problems of reconstruction that faced it. His conduct 
during all these months since that notable event, when by 
becoming less he became truly great, his remarkable success 
in allaying suspicion and creating enthusiasm by his visit 
to Yuan Shi Kai at Peking during a period of momentous 
uncertainty, all his counsel to the people, all his leadership 
show him a man qualified to live up to a lasting world reputa- 
tion. 

Turning now briefly to the other part of our subject what 
shall be said regarding these moral and spiritual elements in 
the outlook for the future? 

1. First it is certain that the spread of enlightenment is to 
go on apace. All the railway, telegraph, and wireless com- 
munication schemes that are being strenuously pushed mean 
the linking up of the country into a great whole so that all 



372 CHARLES L. STORKS 

shall know what concerns the welfare of any section. News- 
papers and books in increasing numbers are having a wider 
and more eager public than ever before. It is a tremendous 
task that the country has undertaken, for only one in four 
hundred of her population is going to school at present; but 
the state and the provinces are giving themselves resolutely 
to the enterprize as of foremost importance. Here in educa- 
tion, in which missions now hold the lead, is the most stra- 
tegic, most vital opportunity that the church has faced 
since the year 1. I hope that the addresses on education 
will not fail forcefully to impress this fact upon us. I 
could wish that that great mother of the churches, the oldest 
and most efficiently organized of them all, the Roman Catho- 
lic Church would enter this field more widely and practically 
than she has. She would find it much more rewarding than 
the political maneuvering that frequently mars and obstructs 
her spiritual advance. 

2. Of the distinctively moral elements in the present out- 
look it is more difficult to speak incisively. Of course it is 
a different thing to rouse moral enthusiasm against the faults 
of others than patiently take one's self in hand; and the 
republicans are finding that the Ethiopian does not change 
his skin nor the leopard his spots. It is all a question whe- 
ther there are honest, selfsacrificing, efficient men in suffi- 
cient numbers to carry the day. I believe that there are. 
They are to be found from top to bottom of the new regime, 
and they are not unaware of what faces them. Premier 
Lu, who speaks both English and French fluently is de- 
scribed in a recent letter from Peking as ''returning with the 
fixed determination to sacrifice himself for his country." 
The assembly man who represents my prefecture in the 
Fukien provincial assembly, a Christian and a scholar, is 
fighting with likeminded spirits to give real effectiveness 
to the early assurance of the new government of absolute 
religious liberty; for in Fukien it is proposed to disqualify 
for the franchise aU heads of religious orders, in the hot- 
headed enthusiasm to have done with all the superstitions 
and benightedness of Taoism and Buddhism. Think of 
untried Chinese Christian statesmen having to fight their 



MORAL ELEMENTS IN CHINESE REVOLUTION 373 

battles for the Buddhist priest and the Taoist geoman- 
cer. 

Young China is beginning to query about the moral issues 
of life both in himself and in society at large; the why's and 
the whither' s begin to present themselves to him for the 
first time. Rev. G. A. Bunbury in south China tells of 
opportunities 'Ho speak to students who are beginning to 
reflect on the cause of moral evil and to find the ethical 
theory of the Chinese classics unsatisfactory because inade- 
quate." Here lies another great challenge to the Christian 
Church to take hold of its supreme task in China with 
redoubled energy. 

On the whole and in the large China seems to be facing 
its future with fine moral enthusiasm. One of the first ofii- 
cial acts of President Yuan Shi Kai was to appoint Shao 
Ying special commissioner to give his full time to the opium 
reform aiming to complete that reform in a year's time. 
The board of the interior gave official support to the program 
in a bulletin of March 20. 

But when we turn to view the moral temper with which 
the powers are meeting China there is no cause for congratu- 
lation. Take this instance for example. On September 16 
last, a consignment of seven chests of opium valued at 20,000 
taels, the property of a Chinese purchaser who had paid full 
customs charges at Shanghai for it, transported to Anking, 
not a treaty port, in a vessel of the China merchants service, 
and stored in a Chinese-owned hulk, was seized by the 
order of the provincial Tutuh (governor) and pubhcly burned 
by the poHce. Here was a matter that from beginning to 
end was certainly wholly the affair of the Chinese both as to 
the legality of the seizure and of any claims for damages. 
Yet Great Britain in the person of its senior consul-general 
Sir Everard Fraser must needs proceed in an armed British 
gunboat, overriding the proper channels for such inquiry 
through Peking, to that same non-treaty port and demand 
an explanation of the Tutuh, the outcome of which is yet to 
be known. It looks as if some British were determined to 
put the ''foreign dirt" into the very pipes of the Chinese and 
watch them while they smoked it. The transaction reminds 



374 CHARLES L. STORRS 

me of the action of the British consul in Foochow in 1911, 
who under pressure of the wholesalers who found their 
stock accumulating with no Chinese retail buyers because of 
the stringency of the administration of the reform measures, 
wrote as follows to the head of the bureau of foreign affairs — 
"I have to request your excellency kindly send telegraphic 
instruction to all local authorities that they issue an expHcit 
proclamation for the general information of the public with 
a view to promoting the sale of this drug." 

The National Review published in Shanghai says of this 
last Anking affair in a leader entitled ''A New Opium War:" 
"We can imagine no act short of actual war more unfriendly 
to the Chinese government than this, which is so malign 
in its effect that it might almost have been calculated deliber- 
ately with a view to initiating an insidious attempt to 
wreck the Republic. Such a result would highly delight 
Great Britain's ally, but would it in the least degree benefit 
Great Britain?" 

One is tempted to agree with an American banker's view of 
the situation. Mr. Warner M. Van Norden of New York, 
is reported in a recent interview, speaking of the foreign 
forces at work in China and rating them in order of efficiency 
of organization, to put first, ''a small but brainy coterie of 
Britishers who with the aid of certain British government 
representatives are working to nullify the popular anti- 
opium movement, and firmly to establish again their nefa- 
rious traffic. In point of ability displayed in their tactics, 
and in the money involved in the outcome, no project in 
China is worthy to be compared with it." 

Put with this front of the West toward China in one of 
it greatest moral struggles, the dollar diplomacy of the pow- 
ers which for so many months has obscured and obstructed 
the course of real statesmanship, and we have very little 
of which to be proud in the moral clothes that we seem to be 
wearing in the eyes of New China. The National Review 
rejoicing in the break of the grip of the sextuple syndicate 
by the successful loan negotiated through the International 
Financial Syndicate says; ''The whole conduct of this fight 
has demonstrated that what the six powers desire in this 



MOEAL ELEMENTS IN CHINESE REVOLUTION 375 

country is not an open door, or an equal opportunity for 
all, but a door closed to all but their favorites, and no oppor- 
tunity whatever for anybody else." 

3. Turning again to the more hopeful Chinese aspect of the 
outlook we find the element of self consciousness or develop- 
ing nationality presenting many grounds for cheer. One 
sees it especially in the enthusiasm and independence of the 
Protestant Christian Church, its sense of responsibility for 
the future of its own country. A growing spirit of unity 
also is most easily discernible here. Another half hour could 
be profitably spent on this inspiring theme. It is another 
side of the marvelous challenge which China is presenting 
to Christian Missions today. 

Patriotism too, of a personal, self devoting sort is not to be 
sought even in times of peace in vain. General Chang Kuei- 
Ti was charged with disciplining the troops concerned in the 
mutinous outbreak at Tung Chow. Among those court-mar- 
tialed and condemned to death was a young lieutenant, a 
so-called ''grandson" of the general of whom the older man 
was very fond. The general himself signed the death war- 
rant and then went into mourning for several days so that 
an unfounded rumor became rife that he had committed 
suicide. One who knows the grip of the family and the clan 
feeling in China cannot but wonder when he sees the sense 
of loyalty to one's country looming larger in a Chinese con- 
science. 

4. Of self-control, the fourth element in our review, the 
Chinese are showing large measures as they grapple with the 
stupendous tasks before them. Of course some of it is 
close to the oriental feeling of fatalism. "We must eat 
three meals a day. What's the difference?" But to New 
China it does make a difference; and if she can keep herself 
from becoming heady and bombastic she will do well and 
keep the sympathy of all her friends. The leaders certainly 
have not shown any of these distinctively student tendencies. 
<^Their spirit is reflected in the words of a high official to a 
representative of a London journal recently. ''China does 
not ask Europe for mercy; she asks for justice and a little 
patience. . . . We are in a little disarray it is true, 



376 CHARLES L. STORES 

because the principle of authority is being restated in a new 
and strange language. We only ask what Europe cannot 
gainsay, namely time to set our house in order. Remem- 
ber we have many mansions and there is much to do." ^: 

A last element in this selfcontrol or poise of the present 
day Chinese is something that he shares with the Chinese of 
all ages — his faith in ''Li." "Li" is the conforming of one's 
individual conduct, or the ordering of social action in accord 
with the great moral laws of the universe. With the most 
ordinary coolie or boatman you can ''kiang li," that is, 
''talk li," get at the reasonable moral conformity of any par- 
ticular act or event. To the inmost rational moral nature 
of the universe; the highest affairs of state are administered 
with the same moral faith. The oughtness of things is with 
the Confucian an articulate living reality. That is why the 
present leaders and statesmen of China, although they know 
that the western governments do not pretend in international 
affairs to live up to their own highest ethical standards, and 
though they know they are faced by a dubious future, seem 
unperturbed. They feel that their own conduct of affairs, 
their programs and ambitions, have "li." The ultimate 
outcome is assured, "the stars in their courses" are fighting 
on their side. Their concern is only to make sure that they 
do not transgress " li." It is a moral faith that is unmatched 
in the non-Christian world. 

From these glimpses of the splendid moral stamina in the 
Chinese people are we surprised to find that not a few of the 
old Confucians who have thrown in their fortunes energeti- 
cally with the new day, intelligent, keen eyed men, with a 
knowledge of the world of affairs, regard the present as a 
mere episode in their nation's history. They still hold 
the westerners as their ethical inferiors — moral barbarians. 
For a time they will give themselves to learning western 
military science, western industry, western political science, 
modern science and modern education; and having made 
herself secure through these, by which the west has gained 
its mastery, China will resume its throne among the nations 
of the world, and rule not only its own affairs but in the 
affairs of the nations according to the supreme moral laws 



MORAL ELEMENTS IN CHINESE REVOLUTION 377 

of the universe. It is for us, peoples of a more advanced 
civilization and a more fundamental religious faith, to show 
them that the ethical bases for such a society and such a 
position in the brotherhood of nations must rest on deeper 
foundations than any in Confucius' noble system, and 
bring them to discover for themselves the one foundation 
that has been laid, Jesus Christ, the Righteous. 



ORGANIZATION AND RECENT WORK OF THE 
CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN CHINA 

By Rev. Father Leo Desmet, for Thirteen Years a Missionary 

in Mongolia 

The Chinese Empire is divided into five ecclesiastical 
regions, and each region is subdivided into vicariates apos- 
tohc corresponding to our American dioceses. 

Vicariates are presided over by vicars apostoHc, who 
bear the title of bishop, but are directly dependent on the 
Congregation of the Propaganda in Rome. 

The vicars apostolic of each region meet together every 
five years, to discuss the problems of administration, educa- 
tion and propaganda, and to ensure uniformity of method 
and discipline in the different vicariates. The result of 
their deliberations is sent to the Congregation of the Propa- 
ganda which appoints a commission to examine the proposed 
regulations. When approved the rules suggested become 
law for the missions represented. 

Organization of the Vicariates 

Generally speaking the central organization of each 
vicariate is at the bishop's residence about which are grouped, 
as in the early ages, the higher educational institutions, 
namely the high school, the training school, the seminary. 

In these schools the teachers aim to give the pupils a 
thorough knowledge of Chinese literature so that they may 
compare favorably with those of the public schools. Through 
the adoption of modern methods and text books, the pupils 
learn now-a-days as much Chinese in one year as they 
formerly did in three. 

Outside the Chinese literature the course embraces bible 
history, church history, apologetics, history of China, 
geography, mathematics, physics, chemistry, Latin and 

378 



CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN CHINA 379 

French or English. Mathematics, physics and chemistry- 
appeal most strongly to the positive mind of the Chinese, 
and no punishment is so much dreaded by the pupils, as 
exclusion from these classes.^ 

The best disposed and most intelligent among the students 
become priests. The others who wish, to stay in the service 
of the mission are sent to the training school where they are 
educated to be teachers or catechists. 

The eloquence, resourcefulness and wit of these cate- 
chists is astonishing. Traveling with the missionaries, 
they were asked questions at night in the inns, concerning 
the missions, their scope and the reasons of Christian belief. 
It was a real delight to us to listen to their explanations, 
with their peculiar Chinese arguments and comparisons. 
The foundation of numerous conversions was laid by these 
familiar conversations which often were protracted late into 
the night. 

Candidates for the priesthood have to spend two years on 
philosophical and three years on theological studies. Before 
being ordained, they have to work as catechists for one year 
under the direction of a missionary. 

I remember that one day, when the doctor of the French 
legation in Peking came to my residence to study the bubonic 
plague, as he did not speak Chinese he held a long conversa- 
tion in Latin with one of our Chinese priests. He was sur- 
prised at the ease with which the latter used that language. 

Formerly no school instruction was provided for Chinese 
girls, except in some wealthy families who hired private 
teachers. If I am not mistaken the Catholic missionaries 
were the first to open schools for them. Although instruc- 
tion was rather elementary, it enabled them to read in their 
difficult idiom the prayer book, the catechism of Christian 
doctrine, the bible history and other religious books. 

^ I find in the Calendrier annuaire of the Observatory of Zikawei (Shang 
Hai) twenty pages devoted to the meteriological observations made by the 
seminarians of Sung shu tsui, tze, East Mongolia: Wind, temperature, 
atmospheric pressure, rainfall and some special phenomena as rain and snow 
by clear weather, yellow wind were observed with great accuracy for three 
years. 



380 LEO DESMET 

To spread that instruction, the bishops have organized 
training schools for young women where they are taught 
something of the Chinese classics, and drilled in the princi- 
ples of Christianity and the methods of presenting it. A 
great number of these young students become nuns and 
devote themselves to the care of the orphans, the teaching 
in girls schools, and the instruction of the new converts of 
their own sex. 

Organization into Districts 

Each vicariate is divided into districts, at the head of 
which is one of the more experienced missionaries. He is a 
consultor of the bishop and inspector of the different par- 
ishes; he makes up the statistics, distributes the money for 
the different works and takes care of the relations with the 
Chinese authorities. Very often he has to interfere in 
law suits. By the treaties, the Christians are free from 
local taxes imposed for purposes of the pagan religion such 
as building and repairing of pagodas, and holding theatrical 
performances in thanksgiving to the gods. Around old 
Christian centers, the non-Christians know and respect this 
exemption, but in the newer missions they often force the 
converts to pay these assessments. Should the latter refuse 
they are subjected to a thousand petty persecutions. The 
missionary tries first to settle the trouble on the spot, but 
this is often impossible, and then he must appear in court. 
On account of the many law-suits thus initiated the dean of 
the district is alone allowed by the bishop to have official 
relations with the mandarins. He generally knows the 
Chinese character well, and is not easily deceived by false 
reports. 

Parishes 

Subdivisions of the district are known as parishes. In 
these are located a residence for one or more missionaries, 
a church, a school for boys, one for girls and often an orphan- 
age. In Mongolia the parishes covered a large territory. 
Mine had an extension of 600 square miles: there hved 



CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN CHINA 381 

scattered among the pagans a Christian population of 1400 
in 21 hamlets. The missionaries visit each village three 
times every year. The most important of these visits is in 
winter when the people are unemployed. According as the 
number and needs of our flock demanded, we remained in a 
village from four days to three weeks, holding service every 
morning and evening and preaching at each service. 

In some hamlets is a chapel, with adjoining room for the 
priest to lodge in. Generally however we held services in 
some Christian home. Every traveler in Mongolia knows 
these Chinese houses: floor of clay, straw thatched roof, 
walls of mud mixed with straw, small square window set 
with paper instead of glass. No bed is in the room, but 
instead a k'ang that is a sort of oven or platform 2 feet high, 
underneath which passes the smoke from the kitchen fire on 
its way to the chimney. In winter with the k'ang as heating 
apparatus, with a sheep-skin coat, a fur cap and felt boots 
one could manage not to freeze. Life was pretty hard on 
these visits, especially on account of the uncleanness of the 
people, and we generally got acquainted with more than one 
kind of vermin. 

During the day each Christian came to the priest to be 
examined on Christian doctrine and practice. After the 
evening service many Christians and pagans came to con- 
verse with the priest. The conversation covered such mat- 
ters as Chinese customs of interest to us, and of western 
topics of interest to them. They asked questions about 
the different countries, the forms of government, the admin- 
istration of the laws, the condition of the people, the charitable 
institutions, and the modern inventions; railroads, steamers, 
electric light, telephone, telegraph, etc. 

Time spent in answering their sometimes childish questions 
was not lost : the people were made to feel more at home with 
the priest, their curiosity to learn of far off lands and happen- 
ings gave him a chance to explain the worth of Christian 
civilization. The close contact with his Christians, the 
personal interest he takes in each one of them (he knows 
them all by name) account for the attachment of the con- 
verts to their missionaries. 



382 leo desmet 

Conversions 

A pagan comes to visit a Christian friend; the first thing 
he remarks is the absence of all images of idols. He hears 
the family sing their night prayers, is impressed and asks 
questions. His friend explains his belief and perhaps gives 
him a book to read. As his interest increases, he requests 
a more thorough knowledge of the strange religion. A 
catechist is sent to his home. Attracted by curiosity the 
men of the village flock around and every evening the teacher 
has a fair audience. The women in turn become interested, 
and want to learn more about Christianity. Two Chinese 
nuns (for they go by two's) are sent to instruct them. 

Finally some families decide to embrace the new religion. 
They study the Christian doctrine and every night led by 
the teachers sing their prayers. When the instruction is 
well advanced, the missionary comes, completes the work of 
the catechists, and confers baptism on the catechumens. 
In many vicariates it is the rule to test these for two years 
before admitting them to baptism. 

Conversions are also often effected through contact with 
a Christian family moving into a remote village, where the 
people never heard much about the Christian religion. They 
are attracted by the example of Christian life. In such way, 
a movement of conversions is often started in a region where 
the Christian religion was hitherto unknown, and brings into 
the church several thousand souls. 

Orphanages 

The Chinese do not like female children. The baby girl 
is often deprived of the mother's milk in favor of an older 
brother. In the mission where I labored, the pagans did 
not throw the infant girls away, except in famine years, but 
poor people often sold them. Husbands in great need even 
sold their wives. The buyer of the baby girl brings her up 
to be a wife for his son, when he and she would be of age. 
Those children have a very hard life, being treated harshly 
and burdened with work above their strength. 



CATHOLIC VIISSIONS IN CHINA 383 

Some parents knowing their little ones would be better 
treated in the orphanage bring them to the priest's residence. 
Under the care of Chinese nuns those innocent beings are 
well cared for, receive a good Christian education, learn 
cooking, sewing, and clothes-making, and in due time marry 
Christian young men. A great number of blind and cripple 
children are saved from abandonment through Christian 
charity. Strange calumnies are circulated about the orphan- 
ages, as for instance that the eyes and the heart of the chil- 
dren are pulled out and sent to Europe to make drugs. I 
know at least of one instance in which on account of that 
calumny, the parents starved slowly to death their girl of 
eight years of age, rather than bring her to the orphanage. 

During prosperous years, few children are received, but 
when the harvest fails, they are brought in great numbers. 
Two years before my arrival, a great famine occurred in 
northern Mongolia. There had been no harvest for two 
years; on every road people lay dying of starvation. That 
year 250 children were received in one orphanage, and saved 
from starvation. When the missionary told me of the an- 
guish he had passed through, not having the resources to save 
more people, I did not wonder that his face had become 
wrinkled and his hair white. ^ 

Quality of the Conversions 

The converts retain after their conversion some of their 
racial defects, but they acquire a greater sense of freedom, 
they favor western civilization, they understand the defici- 
ency of their own culture; they have a strong faith, a great 
love of their religion, and are loyally attached to the mis- 
sionaries. 

During the Boxer uprising, in my parish, forty-two women 
and children were burned alive in a chapel, rather than give 
up their faith. 

* A certain superstitution prevents the parents from letting the children 
die in the house. A little before death they take them outside. Neither 
do they bury the small children. They wrap them in a piece of mat and 
leave them in a secluded place outside the village. Many times I saw a dog 
or a pig eating the tiny corpses. It is to be hoped that the new ideas will 
rapidly change this and other strange customs. 



384 LEO DESMET 

Forty more of my people surrounded by the boxers were 
asked to deny their faith, and on their refusal, were slaugh- 
tered in cool blood. 

While we were besieged, during an armistice, the Boxers 
promised immunity to the Christians, if they would only 
deliver to them the two European priests. I told my men 
that if they thought it would do them any good, we were 
ready to die. They answered : Father, we promised to stay 
with you for life or death, we will stand by what we said and 
the battle went on. 

A review of the Catholic missions would not be complete 
without statistics : 

The latest I could find about the Catholic schools, was 
Krose's Katolischen Missionen statistik which gives in 1907 
4857 schools with 118,013 pupils male and female. 

In 1909 there were in China, 1,210,054 Catholics, 45 
bishops, 1424 European and 631 native priests, 1215 sem- 
inarians, 229 European and 130 native lay brothers, 558 
European sisters and several thousand Chinese nuns, 13,000 
mission places, 8500 churches, chapels and oratories, 400 
orphanages with about 24,000 pupils, and 600 dispensaries, 
hospitals and homes for old people (Cf . Herder's Konversation 
lexikon: Supplement 1911.) The Calendrier annuaireoi the 
Observatory of Zi-ka-wei (Shanghai), 1912, gives for 1910- 
11: Number of bishops, 49; European priests, 1426; native 
priests, 627; number of CathoUcs, 1,363,697. That pubhca- 
tion is very reliable. 

Resources 

Considering the small resources of the Catholic missions 
this seems a satisfactory result. In east Mongolia in 1906 
we received from the Society of the Propagation of the 
Faith about 14,000 francs not quite $3000. If we assume that 
the missionaries receive $3000 more through their friends 
and relatives, that would make $6000 to provide for 48 
priests, 3 boarding schools, 15 residences, 66 schools, and 
a number of catechists. The Christians being generally 
poor, contribute very little. The possibility of keeping 
up these various works, can only be explained by the fact 



CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN CHINA 385 

that the cost of Hving is very low and that the missionaries 
not only receive no salary, but contribute to the work all the 
gifts made to them personally. 

The great need of the day in China are higher educational 
institutions. The lack of resources alone prevents their 
foundation in every vicariate. Catholic high schools or 
colleges are established in Zi-Ka-wei; Shang-hai, Canton, 
Hong-kong, Tien-tsin, Pekin, Nan-kin, and even in Mon- 
golia, for Christians and non-Christians, but they are too 
few. The Protestant missions are far ahead in that line of 
equipment. They have five modern educational institutions 
to every Catholic one. These schools are the best means of 
injecting some Christian spirit into the reform movement that 
that pervades China. 

The need of that spirit is apparent to all students of Chin- 
ese history. That great nation whose people are sturdy, 
intelligent, laborious, sober and patient and have so many 
great qualities, was ever held together by fear and torture. 
It passed through more bloody revolutions than any other 
country, and a spirit of anarchy is latent among the people, 
ready to explode any time. Indeed during the nine- 
teenth century, I count thirteen uprisings and rebellions in 
comparison with which the revolutions of Christian nations 
look like child's play, in which more lives were lost than was 
the entire population of Europe in 1870. During the 
Taiping rebellion 20,000,000 people perished in the one pi'o- 
vince of Kiang-su. During the Tch'ang-mao-tze rebellion, 
Marshall Seng after crushing the rebels on the battle- 
field, pacified the south of the province of Cheh-lih by behead- 
ing 100,000 men. Piracy and robbery are always practiced 
on a great scale, and the idea the people have of their moral- 
ity is rather strange. 

To put it in Chinese terms: Robbery for them is a very 
good business giving easy and big interest, but done with 
a big principal! One's head is the principal. In 1901 in a 
small town of Mongolia 280 robbers lost that principal in 
one row, after first seeing their chief ironed to death with 
red-hot flat irons. 



386 LEO DESMET 

Those facts should give some matter for reflection to those 
who exalt the Chinese civiUzation, without seeing its short- 
comings, and deny the need of missionary work among them. 

Viewing that work merely from the pohtical and utilitarian 
standpoint, may we not reasonably conjecture that if ever, as 
seems quite possible, the yellow race should put his myriads 
against the armies of the white man, the Christian spirit 
infused even in the non-Christians by the work of the mis- 
sionaries will serve to allay inter-racial bitterness, and the 
Chinese Christians will easily induce their fellow country- 
men to trust the Christian nations, and enter into friendly 
relations with them. Is it not quite possible that the work 
of the missionaries may some day preserve from torture and 
slaughter the grandchildren of their critics? 

This view partly answers the question sometimes asked : 
Is the vast expenditure of money and energy for the conver- 
sion of the Chinese really worth the while? 

Looking at it from a religious standpoint, the Catholic 
believes that the saving of one soul would more than com- 
pensate for the entire outlay by Catholics and Protestants 
alike. 

Progress in the work has been slow, first on account of 
the natural apathy of the Chinese people towards reUgious 
questions; Secondly on account of the frequent persecu- 
tions against the Christians, and the destruction of their 
lives and property in political disturbances and rebellions; 
thirdly on account of the prejudices aroused against the 
Christian reUgion by the greed of the western nations for 
Chinese territory and resources, the missionaries being much 
against their will implicated by some of the powers, and so 
being regarded as agents of the foreign aggressors; fourthly 
on account of the divisions of Christendom, which the Chinese 
are not slow to note. 

Notwithstanding all these obstacles, the outlook is fairly 
bright. Since the Boxer uprising, the conversions have 
enormously increased, and now that the educated among 
the Chinese are all eager for western methods and western 
culture, now that the spirit of civil and religious freedom 



CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN CHINA 387 

has conquered China, the missionaries will try to reap a big 
harvest of souls, and to instill into the nation at least a 
leaven of Catholicism. It is true, as long as the Catholics 
in China depend on foreign countries for their priests and 
resources, Catholicism cannot expect to take hold of any 
large part of the Chinese people, but it is the earnest desire 
of all concerned to see as soon as possible the Catholic 
Church in China presided over by native bishops ministered 
to by native priests and sustained by her own resources. 



SOME RECENT DEVELOPMENTS OF CHRISTIAN 
EDUCATION IN CHINA 

By John Franklin Gaucher , LL.D., President Emeritus of 

Goucher College; President of Board of Governors, 

University of Chengtu; Trustee, University 

of Peking 

Christian education in China during the past few years 
has made notable progress. Like the century plant, which 
spends many years in spreading its roots, elaborating its 
stout stem and fleshy leaves, and storing material, then, with 
startling suddenness elevates its ''mast," unfolds its flowers, 
and matures its fruit; so Christian education has had a pro- 
tracted season of diffused and experimental ministry in China. 
This has been of great value, and was preliminary to its fuller 
development. 

It is rapidly passing from the sporadic, individualistic, 
empiric, and competitive stage of its early history. Its 
problems are being defined, its work organized, its methods 
standardized, and leading educators and missionary societies 
are cooperating in spirit and effort to elaborate and establish 
a thoroughly articulated system of Christian education, cov- 
ering the whole range from kindergarten to university. This 
has assumed the proportions of a widely extending movement. 
Its spirit and motive are inseparable from Christianity, but 
were greatly quickened by the findings and influence of the 
World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh. 

Many have thought that Conference the greatest eccle- 
siastical gathering since Pentecost. It had the work of all 
previous gatherings to build upon. It registered a wider 
range and greater variety of Christian experience than any 
previous one. It interpreted larger achievements of grace 
and more varied and more insistent opportunities for the 
transforming and constructive ministries of evangelical 
Christianity than ever before. Its personnel was more typi- 

388 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN CHINA 389 

cal of the universal church than the synod, council, assem- 
bly, or conference of any branch of the church could be. 
Its basis of assigiiing, and hearty cooperation in selecting 
the delegates made it more representative of the churches 
of Christendom than any previous Interdenominational 
gathering. 

It differed from the church councils of the early centuries 
of the Christian era in that their motive was self-preservation; 
their objective to develop the self-consciousness of the church; 
their effort to differentiate, define, and delimit the church in 
regard to the subtile philosophical heresies, insistent tradi- 
tions, and assertive customs which threatened to subvert its 
fundamental principles or destroy its ethical standards; but 
the motive of the Edinburgh Conference was the world's 
conquest for Christ; its objective to develop self-interpreta- 
tion without waste of resource in energy, time or opportunity; 
its effort to emphasize the unities of Christian teaching and 
experience, to subordinate all peculiarities which are not vital 
to its deepest life, and to conserve every agency which might 
broaden or enrich its influence. 

While the Conference persistently sought to develop the 
unity of the Spirit, and the practice of intercession, its most 
distinctive characteristic was its effort to secure, as nearly as 
might be, a scientific study and statement of vital mission- 
ary problems. 

In order to do this, eight commissions, each consisting of 
about twenty experts, were appointed several months in 
advance to gather information from all lands, and consult 
those exceptionally wise concerning specially assigned subj ects. 

Commission III, which had to deal with "Education in 
Relation to the Christianization of National Life,' ' received 
answers, some of more than one hundred typewritten pages, 
to its special inquiries, from about three hundred leading 
missionaries and representative educators. 

These were referred to subcommittees to digest and formu- 
late; then considered and edited by the Eastern Section, and 
revised by the Western Section of the Commission; after- 
ward, reconsidered by the Joint Commission, and mailed in 
galley proof for criticism, emendation or additions to several 



390 JOHN FRANKLIN GOUCHER 

hundred personally interested in the subjects; their sugges- 
tions were carefully considered and the report thus elaborated 
was submitted to the Edinburgh Conference, which spent a 
day in its discussion, and adopted it, together with such rec- 
ommendations as carried its unanimous judgment. Never 
before had there been such a comprehensive preview and 
painstaking discussion of missionary problems. 

This report, thus prepared, in its section dealing with 
"Christian Education in China,'' sets forth among other 
conclusions and suggestions, that 

The present moment is one of unsurpassed importance and 
opportunity for the Christian church; unparalleled in the world 
today, and rarely, if ever, equaled in past history. The facts 
demand, not only of missionary educators in China, but actually 
of the whole Christian world, thorough and constant study of the 
situation from a distinctively educational as well as from a general 
missionary point of view. 

Organization for cooperative work. 

A specific educational policy and system of Christian education 
for China, including educational associations, assemblies, superin- 
tendents, and supervision for provinces, large areas, and the nation, 
with a sufficient number of schools and colleges to serve as exam- 
ples of the highest type of education in which intellectual excel- 
lence is combined with the character-forming power of Christian 
training. 

The appointment of thoroughly trained Christian educators 
with practical experience before being sent out. The appointees 
to be selected with a view to promoting the greatest efficiency in 
conducting schools of every grade, and their service to be of as 
permanent a nature as possible. 

With regard to the important problem of university education 
in China, the Commission records its conviction that the extent 
of the Chinese Empire makes it impracticable that one central 
Christian university should permanently serve all parts of China. 
It looks rather to the eventual founding of several such institutions 
in different parts of the Empire. But at only a very limited num- 
ber of points should the attempt be made at present to develop 
work of a distinctively university calibre. It is of the opinion also 
that when in any of the great divisions of the Empire the time 
is ripe for the development of university education, all the Christian 
forces in that region should unite in the development of one insti- 
tution of Christian learning. Secondary education, and to a less 
extent, college education, must be provided for in the more popu- 
lous and educationally advanced regions, at more than one point, 
but the duplication of higher work in any great division of the 
Empire at an early date is to be deprecated as uneconomical and 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN CHINA 391 

as tending to inefficiency and to the alienation of the support of 
those from whom such support must be expected. 

The Edinburgh Conference appointed a Continuation 
Committee of Thirty-five. 

To carry out, on the Hnes of the Conference itself, which are 
Interdenominational, the ideas of coordinating missionary work, 
laying sound lines for its future development, and evoking and 
claiming by cooperative action fresh stores of spiritual forces for 
the evangelizing of the world. 

To place its services at the disposal of the home boards in any 
steps which they may be led to take towards closer mutual council 
and practical cooperation. 

To take such steps as may seem desirable to carry out, by the 
formation of special committees or otherwise, any practical sug- 
gestions made in the reports of the Commissions. 

In accordance with these provisions, the Continuation 
Committee has appointed a number of special committees 
to deal severally with designated subjects, among which is a 

Committee on Christian Education in the Mission Field with a 
special purpose of continuing the study of the educational situation 
with reference to particular mission fields, and of considering the 
means of fostering cooperation and coordination in missionary 
educational work; the committee to work in two cooperating 
sections; the European Section to consider especially the educa- 
tional situation in India and Africa, and the American Section to 
give special attention to the educational situation in Japan, China, 
and the Levant. 

The Committee on Christian Education in the Mission 
Field held a three days' session at Baltimore as soon after the 
Edinburgh Conference as it could be convened, tabulated its 
functions, defined the objects of its endeavor, and determined 
upon its method of procedure, and has held regular meetings 
at stated intervals to further its work. 

Its chairman spent eight months, September, 1910 to May, 
1911, in the Far East; visited Japan and Korea, and nearly 
all the leading centers of education in China. He carefully 
looked into the condition of many of the Christian and state 
schools; met with the missionary and government educators, 
singly and in groups; sat with committees, boards of education, 
and educational associations; spoke more than one hundred 
times on various problems related to the development of a 



392 JOHN FRANKLIN GOUCHER 

system of Christian education; and secured the appointment 
of joint committees at various strategic centers on the stand- 
ardizing and coordinating of primary and middle schools, and 
on cooperation in the development of colleges, technical 
schools and universities. 

The secretary, Dr. T. H. P. Sayler, has visited Eg5^t and 
Syria in the interests of the work of the Committee on Chris- 
tian Education, and both chairman and secretary have at- 
tended meetings of the European Section of the Committee. 

The American Section of the Committee on Christian 
Education has opened an office in New York, in charge of a 
statistician who, under the direction of a committee of three, 
is gathering, tabulating, and digesting comprehensive and 
detailed information concerning education in China and other 
lands, at home and abroad. The Committee includes a 
number of experts who generously give of their time as re- 
quired to considering the problems which emerge and demand 
solution. As our card catalogues, charts and diagrams be- 
come more complete, we hope to be able to place at the 
service of any educational organization in the field or mis- 
sionary board at home practical suggestions based upon a 
thoroughly scientific consideration of any problem it may 
submit. 

The Educational Association of China,the object of which, 
as defined by Article II of its Constitution, is ''The promotion 
of educational interests in China and the fraternal coopera- 
tion of all engaged in teaching, "was organized by the General 
Missionary Conference held in Shanghai, May, 1890, and 
is actively engaged in prosecuting the work for which it was 
created. 

Dr. Frank D. Gamewell, for many years a professor in the 
Peking University, whose reliance upon God, unconquerable 
devotion, persistent activity, and constructive ability, 
planned, directed the construction and maintained the 
orderly and successful defense of the Compound in Peking, 
where missionaries, native Christians, and members of the 
various legations were besieged during the anti-foreign Boxer 
insurrection till the armies of the nations raised the siege, 
was called in 1908 to supervise the educational work of 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN CHINA 393 

the Methodist Episcopal Church in China, and further its 
organization into a consistent system. 

After detailed visitation of national and Christian schools 
throughout the empire; careful comparative study of the 
various curricula, existing conditions and problems involved ; 
frequent consultations with educators, conference and local 
boards, educational associations, and recognized leaders from 
the home lands, he prepared an elaborate report, accompanied 
by charts, diagrams, and a well digested statement and dis- 
play of the facts, together with specific recommendations 
which were laid before the Central Conference of China of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, December, 1911. This report 
was adopted with practical unanimity, and embodies the 
educational policy of that branch of the Christian church in 
China for all its five Conferences. These Conferences are 
represented by 557 schools of various grades, 894 instructors, 
15,823 students, not including its representatives in the great 
Interdenominational institutions. This policy provides for: 

1. A General Board of Education, elected by the General Con- 
ference for all the educational work of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in China. 

This Board shall have authority in all matters pertaining to the 
standardization and articulation of curricula, and in the coordina- 
tion of education with the other work of missions, and in the general 
advancement of education interests. 

2. A Conference Board of Education, there are five of these, to 
have: 

General supervision of all educational work within its bounds, 
and special supervision of the high schools and intermediate schools : 
to decide their location, determine the qualification of their teachers 
and set examinations. 

3. A District Board of Education, elected by the Conferences 
of the District, to have supervision of the day schools within its 
bounds. Its duties shall be: 

To decide where schools shall be located; to provide well lighted 
and sanitary buildings, properly equipped; to examine and engage 
teachers; to set uniform examinations. 

Dr. Gamewell is continued as general educational superin- 
tendent for the work of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 
China, and the Educational Association of China has invited 
him to become superintendent of the Christian educational 
work of the entire republic, which position he has accepted. 



394 JOHN FRANKLIN GOUCHER 

I have referred to these three agencies working for coor- 
dination and cooperation in the Christian educational work 
of China. One interdenominational, the Committee on 
Christian Education in the Mission Field, created by the 
World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh. One national, 
the Educational Association of China, and one denomina- 
tional. There are many others, interdenominational, de- 
nominational, and geographical, too numerous to mention 
at this time, such as: The General Education Committee 
of China, appointed by the Centennial Conference held at 
Shanghai, 1907; various educational associations for two, 
three or four provinces, or a considerable area, larger than 
one province; and there is scarcely a province without a 
similar association working for similar results; while other 
associations are studying the problems, and furthering the 
interests of united effort in smaller areas about important 
centers. The three organizations referred to somewhat in 
detail are typical and reveal the trend which others only 
accentuate. 

The churches in the home lands are showing a similar 
synthetic spirit. 

The Presbyterian Church in the United States in its Gen- 
eral Assembly, 1900, approved a report of its Standing Com- 
mittee on Foreign Missions, in which along other things, the 
statement is made : 

The object of the foreign missionary enterprise is not to perpet- 
uate on mission fields the denominational distinctions of Christen- 
dom, but to build up on Scriptural lines and according to Scrip- 
tural methods and principles the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

The American Baptist Foreign Mission Society has adopt- 
ed the following principle as the policy of its operations 
abroad : 

That to the utmost practical extent there should be cooperation 
with other Christian bodies working in the same fields. Such 
cooperation is of special importance in the department of higher 
education, where students are relatively few and education expen- 
sive. 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN CHINA 395 

The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- 
sions has repeatedly committed itself to any and every practi- 
cal plan of cooperation which was within the limits of its 
financial resources, believing that its work in Asia and Africa 
is not to build up a church according to any set model, but that 
it is to cooperate with other Christian workers in the estab- 
lishment of the living Church of Jesus Christ as the center of 
power and life and redemption for all men. 

Other missionary and denominational assemblies have 
repeatedly expressed themselves as in favor of the closest 
cooperation with other societies and communions in promot- 
ing the cause of foreign missions. 

There has never been a period since the beginning of 
modern missions when denominational differences were so 
minimized and the great fundamental truths of our blessed 
religion were so universally emphasized. 

The consensus of judgment as held by many of the leading 
Christian educators, representative missionaries, and strong- 
est mission boards, points towards several well defined con- 
clusions. Among these, the following seem to be included: 

The education of the Chinese is not the problem of the 
mission boards; the education of the Chinese is China's 
problem. 

The problem of the Christian Church is : 

1. To furnish China with a thoroughly standardized and 
coordinated system of Christian education, emphasizing qual- 
ity rather than quantity. 

a. To provide educated leadership in the various pro- 
fessions and vocations of life, such as preachers, teachers, 
doctors, statesmen, engineers, manufacturers, merchants, 
financiers, and the like. 

b. To provide an intelligent and reasonably educated mem- 
bership and dependable citizenship which shall be able to 
appreciate the teachings of God's Word, support the aggres- 
sive agencies of Christianity, and constructively influence 
their community life. 

c. To serve as a challenge and corrective to the national 
schools of similar grade. 



396 JOHN FRANKLIN GOUCHER 

d. To furnish the repubhc an example of education at 
its best, which undoubtedly would be largely imitated. 

This is necessary that China may be enabled and induced 
to provide for the proper education of the Chinese. 

2. Such a system will require: 

a. Schools ranging all the way from the kindergarten to 
the university. 

h. That each school shall be true to its grade name, with 
its courses of study and work carefully adjusted to the other 
schools of the system, the ability of the young people who 
attend, and the preparation needful to make the most out of 
their probable environment. 

c. Teachers specially prepared, of tried efficiency, carefully 
adjusted, and adequately supported, with special and com- 
prehensive revision for training native teachers, and supply- 
ing them with thorough supervision. 

3. As necessary to the development and maintenance of 
such a system of Christian education, it seems necessary that : 

a. The primary schools should be denominational, the mid- 
dle schools usually so, and the colleges not infrequently so. 

6. Usually the colleges, and possibly in almost every case 
the universities, should be interdenominational. 

c. The Christian schools of higher grade should not be 
unduly multiplied, nor near enough to compete with each 
other; say four, five, or six Christian universities located at 
the great strategic centers would be as many as should be 
attempted; each central to a large constituency, supple- 
mented by a sufficient number of strong denominational or 
interdenominational colleges to supply it with thoroughly 
prepared students for its technical schools and graduate work. 

d. Each college should have its preparatory schools closely 
affiliated, of adequate number and quality to supply it with 
thoroughly prepared students, and each of the preparatory 
schools should be similarly related to a number of primary 
schools. 

If, out of every two hundred who enter our primary schools, 
in the United States, only one on the average graduates from 
a first-class college, we may not expect a much larger propor- 
tion, for some time at least, in China, and it wUl require a 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN CHINA 397 

comprehensive and well organized system of primary and 
preparatory schools to supply proper patronage for the col- 
leges and universities. 

This statement is neither academic nor wholly idealistic. 
A consideration of the development of Christian education as 
recorded in China during the past three or four years, will 
make it clear that the dominating trend is toward great, 
interdenominational universities, located at a few strategic 
centers, having denominational or interdenominational col- 
leges, preparatory schools, and primary schools within a defi- 
nite area, closely articulated; with interdenominational edu- 
cational associations, and adequate supervision to maintain 
the standards and coordinations; to council, and in some 
cases, regulate and determine the location, grades, and effi- 
ciency of the schools. 

It means much that the problems are being so carefully 
studied and clearly defined; that all movements seem to be 
synthetic, and that overlapping, harmful competition, and 
wasteful, undirected experimentation is being limited. 

The constructive results are also noteworthy, and the 
future is radiant with hope. 

The West China Union University is a recent development 
of Christian education in China and registers its trend. It 
is situated at Chengtu, a city of about 450,000 inhabitants, 
the capital of Szechwan, the largest, most populous, most 
productive province in China, with about the same area and 
twice the population of France. Chengtu is one of the six 
most important cities in the republic, a great literary, educa- 
tional, and military center; and is strategically located to the 
three great provinces of west China which are geographically 
separated from the rest of the republic and contain about 
one-fourth of China's area and population . 

In November, 1905, representatives of the eight missions 
engaged in educational work in west China were called to- 
gether and they started plans which in October, 1906, resulted 
in the organization of the West China Christian Educational 
Union. This association is a compact and efficient body, 
which outlines the curricula, conducts the examinations, 
confers the certificates, and in general oversees the primary 



398 JOHN FRANKLIN GOUCHER 

and secondary educational work of all the Protestant mis- 
sions in west China. 

It was natural for those who were unitedly doing such 
thorough and systematic primary and preparatory work to 
desire enlarged and advanced opportunities, and during the 
Centennial Conference held at Shanghai in 1907 the mis- 
sionaries in attendance from west China held three meetings 
to discuss plans for the extension of their educational system. 

In 1908, a representative committee was appointed an 
reported in favor of establishing a union university for west 
China, under interdenominational control, and the proposition 
had the endorsement of practically all the missionaries in that 
field. When referred to the home boards for their approval, 
four boards — The Friends' Foreign Missionary Society of 
Great Britain and Ireland, the General Board of Missions of 
the Methodist Church of Canada, the American Baptist 
Foreign Missionary Society, and the Board of Foreign Mis- 
sions of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States 
of America — endorsed the project, ''provided a plan of 
cooperation can be devised which will be acceptable to the 
cooperating bodies." Two other mission boards commended 
the project, but felt they could not financially cooperate. 

After much consultation and correspondence the estab- 
lishment of the university was unanimously authorized, under 
conditions satisfactory alike to the home boards and the 
missionaries in the field. It is thus international and inter- 
denominational. 

For some time about one hundred students had been study- 
ing at the Union Preparatory School, a number of whom 
were ready for college work. 

So eager were the missionaries to meet the urgent demand 
and so confident were they that what should be done could 
and would be done that the West China Union University 
was begun and a class of ten students received for college 
grade work on Chinese New Year, March 11, 1910, though 
the joint committee of the four bodies which have cooperated 
in establishing the university did not meet to draft the con- 
stitution in its final shape until June, 1910, when they con- 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN CHINA 399 

vened in London, England, just after the Edinburgh Con- 
ference. 

The control on the educational side of the university is 
vested in a senate composed largely of instructors, together 
with other representatives of the cooperating bodies. The 
senate determines the curricula, conducts the examinations, 
grants degrees, and has general charge of all university affairs 
in the field. 

The ultimate control is vested in a board of governors 
resident in the home lands and composed of three representa- 
tives of each of the cooperating mission boards, and others, 
not exceeding eight, selected by these. The board of gover- 
nors holds and controls all the real estate, funded capital, and 
other property of the university. 

The revolution which resulted in the establishment of the 
republic temporarily interrupted the work of the university. 
All foreigners were required to leave Chengtu and were not 
able to return for several months, but the institution reopened 
in good shape in September last with the first two classes of 
college grade. 

The medical department is in process of organization and 
will include three general hospitals, two of which have recently 
been completed, and $25,000, gold, is in hand for the building 
of the third; $25,000, gold, has been provided for the medical 
school building and one of the cooperating boards has set 
apart two instructors for that work. 

The Union Theological School for the four cooperating 
missions, though not an organic part of the university as yet, 
is doing successful work and is closely related to it. 

The normal department has held a prominent place in the 
purpose and work of the university plans from its inception. 
The China Emergency Appeal Committee, of London, has 
made a grant of $4500, gold, for this department, and draw- 
ings are being prepared for the normal building. Five mis- 
sions have been represented in its student body. 

Two university men familiar with the language and having 
successful experience in educational work in west China have 
been at home for special training, are under appointment 



400 JOHN FRANKLIN GOUCHER 

and will sail within a few weeks to strengthen the educational 
department. 

Plans are being projected to increase the two regular sum- 
mer schools for teachers to five, to be held annually at con- 
venient centers. The university extension courses, with lan- 
tern slides, will be enlarged. The development of the normal 
school for primary teachers, and the opening of a teachers' 
college for secondary teachers are provided for. 

The superintendent of the primary and middle schools 
is to sail in January. He is also secretary of the West China 
Educational Union, and a member of the faculty of the 
teachers' department, and his influence in these various 
relations will greatly strengthen the unity of the work. 

There are 7000 students in the 240 primary and middle 
schools connected with the various missions under the 355 
missionaries in west China. These are included in the system 
and closely articulated through the West China Educational 
Union. They are following the same curricula, carefully 
graded and arranged as far as possible in harmony with the 
government courses of study, but including religious instruc- 
tion; taking the same examinations conducted by the Educa- 
tional Union; and passed from grade to grade by certificates 
issued by that body; and they are under the strong Christian 
influence of men and women who have gone out from home 
primarily to teach the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
whose lives are a daily witness to the power of their message. 
This comprehensive system of unified activities will secure 
the supply of students for the Colleges, Technical Schools, 
and graduate work of the university, and assure a demand for 
their graduates. 

Financial 

The four participating missions support ten foreigners, 
graduates of western colleges and universities, who are teach- 
ing in the departments of the university as members of the 
faculty (at an average salary of, say, $1250), $12,250; an 
educational secretary whose work is a part of the normal 
department of the university is supported at an annual cost, 
including traveling expenses, of $1750; last year each of the 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN CHINA 401 

four mission boards contributed $1250 for running expenses, 
making $5000; this makes a total annual contribution from 
the boards of $19,000. 

It is assumed that at least this amount will be contributed 
annually for the future, and the guarantee of the mission 
boards is not inferior as security to railroad or industrial 
stocks or bonds. This sum, capitalized at 5 per cent, may 
be considered as representing an endowment of $380,000. 

In addition to the above annual contributions, the four 
boards have already invested in the purchase of 51 acres of 
land for the university site, erection of buildings and equip- 
ment, all costing $70,000. 

Each of the four cooperating mission boards is under agree- 
ment to erect at least one college building, with dormitory 
for its students and residence for its member or members of 
the faculty. Based upon appropriations already made, these 
may be valued for the four boards at not less than $125,000. 

Money is in hand to secure about 50 acres more land, so 
as to square out the tract, and make ample provision for the 
future, say $25,000. 

The total value of the above assets is about $600,000. 

The board of governors are engaged in a campaign to 
secure $500,000 for buildings and endowments, part of which 
has been pledged, and the outlook is very hopeful. 

It is expected that the Woman's Union Normal College 
will be built near by, and it has $10,500, gold, in hand for that 
purpose. 

The actual university work which the university is doing 
is as yet limited, but its high and clearly defined ideals, the 
completeness of its organization, its spirit of harmony, the 
quality of its work, and its substantial growth are such as to 
commend it most favorably to the Chinese. 

The government educational authorities have officially rec- 
ognized and registered its middle school. 

The Commissioner of Education has asked Dr. J. L. Stew- 
art, vice-president of the university, to serve upon the Board 
of Advisors of the Government System of Education, and has 
made him a monthly grant for expenses. 

The government representatives have requested the Union 



402 JOHN FRANKLIN GOUCHER 

University professors to assist in their educational work by 
lectures and in other ways, and have given other significant 
evidences of their appreciation. 

This is the most thoroughly organized piece of educational 
work in the Republic of China. 

The University of Nanking is another recent development. 
It is situated at Nanking in the lower Yangtsze Valley. 
Nanking is the transportation, literary, and educational 
center, and an ancient capital of China, and many think that 
in the near future it will become the permanent capital of 
the republic. It is central to 105,000,000 people speaking 
the Wu dialect in the four provinces immediately about it; 
and, when the system of railroads which is being constructed 
is completed, it will be the most accessible city in all China. 

After three or four years of discussion, a basis of union 
acceptable to the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Disciples 
of Christ, and the Presbyterian Church in the United States 
of America, was agreed upon, and the union of the school 
supported by these boards in and about Nanking went into 
effect as an Interdenominational University, February 1910. 

Control 

There is a Board of Trustees in America, composed of 
three from each of the cooperating mission boards, who per- 
form the usual duties of such officers. 

There is on the field a Board of Twelve Managers, four from 
each mission, who control and manage the affairs of the uni- 
versity, subject to the approval of the Board of Trustees. 

For immediate control there is a Local Executive Commit- 
tee of the Board of Managers, as well as a University Coun- 
cil representing the faculty. 

April 19, 1911, the Regents of the University of the State 
of New York granted a charter to the University of Nanking 
and in August, 1912, advanced to the degree of bachelor of 
arts the first class to graduate from the University of Nan- 
king. Last year it had 501 students in attendance. 



christian education in china 403 

Departments 

Its Preparatory School and its College are well developed, 
determining the standards of requirement, and other schools 
of similar grades are being developed and affiliated with it. 

It is enlarging its Teachers' College and Training School, 
the latter for primary school teachers and the former for 
teachers of more advanced schools. 

Twenty-eight mission boards and societies requested the 
university to open a language school, where young mission- 
aries could spend their first year under the most favorable 
conditions to study the language. This school opened Octo- 
ber 15 with about 30 per cent more students than it had an- 
nounced it would receive the first year, and arrangements 
have been made to house and permanently care for the stu- 
dents who are applying from distant parts of the republic. 

The Central China Medical School, representing seven de- 
nominations has become an organic part of the university. 

The theological school, in which five denominations are 
united and seven others are cooperating, is closely affiliated 
with the university with the prospect of organic union in the 
near future. 

The agricultural department is engaged in practical work 
along with its regular instruction. The government and the 
people of Nanking have turned over to the university 1000 
acres of ground on the side of Purple Mountain, about two 
miles from the university site, and have offered 1000 acres 
more about thirty miles distant, but the latter is too far 
away to be handled at present. This gives opportunity to 
introduce a form of agriculture not dependent upon irriga- 
tion, which is recognized as an exceedingly valuable eco- 
nomic contribution to China. 

Dr. Balie, one of the professors of the university, has direc- 
tion of the department and is colonizing farmers who have 
been driven from their homes by flood and famine. During 
last winter and spring this department set out 100,000 forest 
trees, 4000 fruit trees, 2000 of which were imported from 
California, and 5000 mulberry trees, and a man trained in 
Japan according to the most approved methods of the Japan- 



404 JOHN FRANKLIN GOUCHER 

ese government, is teaching the care of the silk worm. It is 
also introducing the cultivation of potatoes, strawberries, 
other small fruits, and a nimiber of cereals. 

Staff 

The president is Dr. A. J. Bowen. 

In the preparatory and college work are fifteen graduates 
of American institutions. 

In the theological department are Dr. J. C. Garret, and 
four other university men, all with fine command of the 
Chinese language. 

In the medical school are seven men, trained in American 
medical schools, making twenty-eight specially trained for- 
eigners. There are also on the staff of the university thirty 
Chinese teachers, some of whom are scholars of great distinc- 
tion, making a total of fifty-eight, and this does not include 
the agricultural department and only one from the language 
school. 

Equipment 

There are 63 acres of land and walls worth $34,800 and 
money is in hand to purchase about 40 acres more; nine 
dwellings valued at $23,750; three lecture halls, one scien- 
tific building, three dormitories (accommodating 500); one 
chapel, one Y. M. C. A. building, $62,500; equipment, 
$14,150; the total value of all equipment is $134,200. 

Finances 

The 63 acres of ground, 18 buildings and equipment, are 
worth $134,200. The three cooperating missions supply 
12 professors at an average of $1500 each; this totals $18,000. 
Each mission gives $3000 annually for current expense; this 
makes $9000. The treasurer and accountant receives $1000. 
There is an annual contribution of $28,000. All of the above 
capitalized at 5 per cent represents $560,000. 

The university has recently received for land, buildings 
and endowment through its $500,000 campaign, $270,000. 

The theological department has five professors at $1500 
each, making $7500, which capitalized at 5 per cent is $150,- 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN CHINA 405 

000; twenty acres of land and buildings valued at $31,000; 
these two items total $181,000. 

The medical department has seven professors at $1500 
each which capitalized at 5 per cent is $210,000; equipment 
valued at $14,000; seven residences valued at $21,000; $300 
on current expense account annually from each of the seven 
cooperating missions $2100, capitalized at 5 per cent is $42,- 
000; totals $287,000. 

The grand total is $1,432,200. 

The canvass for $500,000 is progressing very successfully; 
$380,000 have been added to the assets of the university 
within a year, and there are promises of assistance sufficient 
to make the total assets equivalent to about $1,500,000. 

Three other denominations are completing their arrange- 
ments to unite with the university, which will further increase 
its assets and efficiency. 

Christian primary and secondary education throughout 
the region covered by the affiliated and cooperating missions, 
including more than one hundred schools, is being standard- 
ized and coordinated under the supervision and direction of 
the university and the Central China Educational Commis- 
sion. 

This commission consists of two representatives from each 
of the missions in the Wu dialect-speaking districts, having 
educational work. Its purpose is to discuss the educational 
work in these four provinces, and unite all the work into a 
system, no matter where it relegates any present school. 

The university is prospering, and has the heartiest endorse- 
ment of the Chinese. Its patronage is growing rapidly, and 
broadening. The highest officials patronize the university, 
honor its faculty, attend its public functions, and speak in 
highest commendation of its work. 

Its agricultural department has had a notable recognition. 

The China Famine Relief Commission granted $3000 
(Mexican) to aid its work. The Chamber of Commerce of 
Nanking has made a large grant to assist in its development, 
and so has the Silk Merchants' Guild. 

An exceptional endorsement has been given it, signed by 
Sun Wen, the provisional president, Yuan Shih K'ai, the 



406 JOHN FRANKLIN GOUCHER 

president, Li Yuan Hing, the vice-president, every member 
of the cabinet of the republic, many leading generals, others 
high in civil service, representative merchants and influen- 
tial financiers. 

The University of Nanking has had the most phenomenal 
development of any educational work in China. 

These two interdenominational universities, strategically 
located, in the Yangtsze Valley, 1800 miles or five weeks' 
journey apart, each easily accessible to one-fourth of China's 
immense population, are cooperating in organized effort to 
realize the same ideals and are registering, even at this early 
stage of their development, an immense constructive influ- 
ence which suggests the possibilities and benefits of a system 
of Christian Education which shall reach the entire republic. 

A similar interdenominational movement is in progress 
about Peking. A representative committee of thirty-seven, 
the Union Educational Committee has been constituted, 
and has ''sub-committees at work preparing courses of study 
for the primary and intermediate grade schools for the 
Chili province, a similar committee for the academic grades, 
another for summer conferences, and a Provisional Commit- 
tee on Union Educational Work in North China," and they 
report considerable progress. 

The Union Medical College of Peking — international and 
interdenominational — receives an annual grant of 10,000 
taels from the Chinese government for current expenses, and 
has had notable recognition from the Chinese authorities. 

Wherever other institutions may emerge in the future, 
the interdenominational universities at the great centers of 
Nanking, Chengtu, Peking and Canton, each with one-fourth 
of China's population accessible, must exert a constructive 
and immeasurable influence upon the 100,000,000 people to 
whom they are respectively central. 

The Woman's Boards of the Presbyterian Church of the 
United States, American Board of Commissioners of Foreign 
Missions, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, established 
a Woman's Union Medical College at Peking in 1907, and it 
will graduate its first class in 1913. Its students come from 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN CHINA 407 

Foo Chow, Chengtu, Nanking, and Shanghai, as well as from 
Peking. 

The Woman's College of Peking is an interdenominational 
institution, founded by the union of four denominational 
boards, and has graduated two classes. 

There is an interesting and promising interdenominational 
movement in the Fukien province, which has made sub- 
stantial progress toward standardizing the primary and 
middle schools, and is working upon a plan for an interde- 
nominational university. 

The Shangtung Christian University is another interde- 
nominational institution which should be mentioned with 
considerable detail had we the time. It includes the Amer- 
ican Presbyterian, English Baptist and Anglican mission 
boards. 

There are some thirty different higher educational institu- 
tions in China that are interdenominational in their control, 
their faculties, and their students, and are serving all the 
missionary societies that join in their support and manage- 
ment with economy and increased efficiency. These insti- 
tutions include universities, theological schools, medical 
schools, colleges, normal schools, schools for missionaries' 
children, and, in fact, educational institutions above the 
primary and intermediate grade, of every character, and some 
of the kindergarten training schools for the preparation of 
kindergarten teachers are supported and controlled by inter- 
denominational bodies. This method of training and admin- 
istration has passed its experimental stage, and reached a 
position where it commands the confidence of those who 
participate. 

The Canton Christian College has been making decided 
progress the last few years, and has 418 students. Practi- 
cally all the Protestant denominations at work in Canton — • 
British as well as American — are united in the work of the 
University Medical School affihated with the college, and 
the spirit of unity is on the increase. 

The Canton Missionary Conference has organized an 
Interdenominational Board of Cooperation, which is operat- 



408 JOHN FRANKLIN GOUCHER 

ing as a unifying factor among the missions, churches and 
schools. 

The South China Educational Association, ''the member- 
ship of which is available to all, whether Chinese or foreigners 
who may be engaged in, or in any way connected with or 
interested in educational work," has established a Unifica- 
tion Committee, with a Unification Secretary, and is working 
successfully to secure uniform schedules and coordination in 
the schools associated. It issues a monthly bulletin, has 
monthly meetings, and many of the present problems of 
school management and of larger policy have had much 
light thrown upon them by the discussions before the asso- 
ciation. 

There are some denominational schools of high grade which 
are making excellent growth, such as St. John's University 
at Shanghai, Boone University at Woo Chow, and others. 
But the most notable developments are in the interdenomi- 
national institutions, and the trend of Christian education 
in China is decidedly towards the interdenominational uni- 
versity, with denominational and interdenominational tech- 
nical schools and colleges, organically related or closely 
affiliated, strengthening the local administration, but keeping 
the determination of the larger policies and problems in the 
hands of the interdenominational boards in the home lands. 
There seem to be abundant reasons to justify this. 

It eliminates overlapping, duplication, and harmful com- 
petition. 

It secures cooperation, specialization of workers and work, 
economy of administration, and increased efficiency. 

It broadens the field of activity for the institution, en- 
larges the constituency from which to draw students, multi- 
plies the facilities for graduates to find employment, and gives 
increased opportunities. 

It appeals to the loyalty and liberality of Christians in the 
home lands and makes possible the establishment, mainte- 
nance, and development of great Christian institutions; it 
secures to them the ability to maintain the highest standards 
of efficiency; it enables them to compare most favorably 
with the government schools in the breadth, variety, and 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN CHINA 409 

thoroughness of work offered; it guarantees the continuance 
of their Christian character; and simphfies the problems of 
governmental approach and recognition. 

Business men desire that their investments shall have two 
qualities in particular, security and productiveness. Inter- 
denominational institutions furnish both of these in large 
measure, and react with blessed influence upon the support- 
ing Churches in the home land, reflecting the prayer of Our 
Lord for His disciples that they all may be one. 

It has been a matter of astonishment to many that China, 
the oldest, largest, most conservative nation on earth, should 
have remained to the present time so slightly influenced by 
Christianity. 

May it not be because Christianity has had neither the 
vision nor the spirit to properly undertake the mighty task? 
Christ took a little child and set him in the midst of His disci- 
ples as the hope and responsibility of the Church, and called 
His disciples to be laborers, to be laborers together, to be 
^'laborers together with Him." When they recognize the 
possibilities of Christian education to so influence the children 
as to lay adequate foundations for the Kingdom of Christ, 
and possess the Spirit to undertake the programme with 
united effort, He will honor their labor with assured success. 



AUTHORS 



Bland, J. O. P 223 

Blakeslee, G. H 300 

Capen, Edward W 93 

Carl, Katharine A 305 

CoRBiN, Paul L 256 

Desmet, Leo 378 

Drew, Edward B 272 

Edmunds, Charles K 181 

Eliot, Charles W 1 

GoucHER, John Franklin 388 

Hart, Albert Bushnell 37 

Honda, Masujiro 176 



Kuo, P. W 345 

Robinson, B. Atwood 237 

Seaman, L. L 50 

Storrs, Charles L 359 

Straight, Willard 119 

Thomson, John Stuart 66 

TsAO, Y. S 162 

Wang, Ching-Chun 19 

Williams, F. W 319 

Young, Charles W 199 

Yui, C. Voonping 335 



SUBJECT INDEX 



Ability of China, 24-25. 

Backwardness of China, reasons for, 
23-24. 

Boxer uprising, 51-52, 297-300. 

Catholic missions in China, 378-387; 
organization of Catholic, 378-381; 
conversions, 382-384 ; resources, 
384-387. 

Christianity in China, 20-22. 

Commerce, 241-243. 

Dangers to China from the great 
powers, 26-28. 

Democracy in China, 54. 

Diplomacy in China; American and 
Japanese, 176-180. 

Dollar diplomacy, 120-122. 

Education in China, 98-99; effect 
of American and Japanese, upon 
revolution, 165-168; status of, at 
dawn of revolution, 346-347 ; effect 
of revolution upon, 347-348; reor- 
ganization of, 348-355; students 
educated in United States, 355- 
356; popularizing education, 356- 
357; recent developments of Chris- 
tian, 388-409; world missionary 
conference on China, 388-391; 
West China Union University, 



397-400; University of Nanking, 
402-406. 

Empress Dowager, Tze-Hsi, 305- 
318; character of, 305; painting 
the portrait of, 306-312; court of, 
308-310; simplicity of, 310-311; 
audience hall of, 311-312; daily 
life, 312-314; agriculture, 316; mu- 
sic, 316-317; descent of, 317. 

Finances, present situation of, 150- 
154. 

Foreign trade, 243-255; with the 
United States, 246-255. 

Foreigners, attitude of towards 
China, 15-18. 

Great powers, attitude of towards 
China, 14-15. 

Hart, Sir Robert, early life, 272-274; 
Chinese foreign customs service, 
275-280; character of customs serv- 
ice, 280-282; organization and 
development of service, 284-290; 
diplomatic service of, 290-295; 
postal service, creation of, 296- 
297 ; Boxer revolt, 297-300 ; personal 
characteristics, 301-302; summary 
of life work, 303-304, 306. 



411 



412 



SUBJECT INDEX 



Holy Alliance; in Europe, 37-39; 
new holy alliance for China, 39-49. 

Industries of China, 20. 

Japan, the United States and China, 
176-180. 

Loan negotiations, 43^9; oppressive 
conditions of, 61-63; history of, 
119-147; John Hay and open-door 
policy, 124-125; participation of 
American capital, 127-131; condi- 
tions of the six powers, 143-145; 
Crisp loan, 146-148; present fi- 
nancial situation, 150-154; crit- 
icism and defense of the six power 
group, 154-159; withdrawal of sup- 
port of American government, 159- 
160; statement and withdrawal of 
American banking group, 160-161. 

Local government, 54. 

Manchu conquest of China, 319-334; 
Nurhachu, 319-324; Peking cap- 
tured, 327-328; establishment of 
Manchu rule, 328-330; Manchu 
bannermen, 333. 

Manchuria, 44; proposal to neutral- 
ize railroads, 128-129. 

Medical practice, present status 
compared with Greeks, 199-201; 
compared with former medical 
practice in Europe, 201-203; his- 
tory of, in China, 203-207; coming 
of western medical missionaries, 
206-209; western quacks, 209-210; 
questionable opium treatment, 
210; comparison between western 
and Chinese treatment, 210-212; 
medical colleges, 212-217; lan- 
guage question in teaching west- 
ern medicine, 217-220; present 
status of western practice in 
China, 220-222. 

Missionaries in China, 104^109; Cath- 
olic, in China, 378-387; conver- 
sions, 382-384; resources, 384-387; 
educational work of, 388-409. 

Mongolia, 46. 

Monroe doctrine, 47. 

Moral elements in Chinese revolu- 
tion; enlightenment through west- 
ern education, 360-361 ; new moral 



conscience, 361-364; new self -con- 
sciousness among Chinese people, 
364-369; self-control, 369-371; out- 
look for future, 371-377. 

Nanking, siege of during revolution, 
335-344; description of fighting, 
336-339; humanity of revolution- 
ists, 340-341. 

Opium traflSc, abolition of, 223-236; 
general situation especially in 
Shansi, 265-269; anti-opium agi- 
tation, 224-225; failure to abolish 
227-231; violation of opium agree- 
ment, 231-232; moral aspect of 
opium smoking, 232-236. 

Opium war, 52, 224-226. 

Partitioning of China, 50, 52. 

Poverty of China and its principle, 
13. 

Protestant missions in China, 388- 
409; world missionary conference 
on China, 388-391; Methodist 
Episcopal work, 392-393; Pres- 
byterian, Baptist and American 
Board, 394-395; West China Union 
University, 397-400; University of 
Nanking, 402-406. 

Physical problems, 181-198; refor- 
estation, need of, 182-183, 262- 
263; rivers, need of control, 183- 
186; typhoons, 186-187; weather 
service, 187-188; canals, 189-192; 
railroads, 193-196. 

Qualities of the Chinese, 54-55. 

Railroads, 193-196. 

Recognition of the Chinese Repub- 
lic, 53-65. 

Republic of China, legal status of, 
56-57. 

Resources of China, 239-240. 

Revolution, Chinese; success, 55-60; 
significance of, 66-68; beginnings 
of, 68-71; causes of, 73-75, 343- 
344; outbreak, 75; leaders of, 75- 
81; railroad situation, influence 
of, 82-84; books and songs, influ- 
ence of, 84-85; fighting, character 
of, 84-87; Nanking, siege of during 
revolution, 335-344; effect of, upon 
education, 345-358 ; moral and spir- 
itual elements in, 359-377. 



SUBJECT INDEX 



413 



Shansi Province, industrial future 
of, 256-271; mineral resources 
of, 257-260; concessions, 258-259; 
native methods of mining, 259; 
railroads, 260-262; aforestation, 
262-263; agricultural resources, 
263-265; opium, 265-269. 

Social reforms, 103-104. 

Soldiers, fighting ability of, 2-4; 
86-87. 

Students, influence of returned 
Chinese, upon revolution, 162- 
175; early students in United 
States, 164-165; preliminary plots 
by students, 168-173; influence of 
Japan and America compared, 
169-174. 

Sun Yat Sen, 75-78, 89-90. 

Trade, 19-20. 

Unifying China, means of; common 
language, 4-5; common system of 
taxation, 5-7 ; roads and railroads, 
7-9; strong central government, 
10-11; sentiment of common feel- 
ing of nationality, 11-13. 

United States and China; common 
interests, 28-29; trade, 29; both 



Pacific Powers, 30-31 ; cordial re- 
lations in the past, 31-32; Ameri- 
cans largely responsible for the 
revolution, 33-34; the immigration 
question, 34-35; the selfish finan- 
cial interests, 35-36; in six power 
group, 45-49; special obligations 
of the United States, 57-58; Amer- 
ica's business opportunity, 237- 
255 ; friendly feeling between, 237- 
238; grade between 245-255. 

United States, Japan and China, 176- 
180. 

Western influence in China; what 
western influence has accom- 
plished, 94-109; industrial devel- 
opment, 95-97; postal service, 95- 
96; railroads and steamships, 96; 
education, 98-99; politics and 
government, 99-102; missionaries, 
104-109; what western influence 
should not destroy, 109-111 ; where 
China can learn from the west, 
111-114; how the west can be 
helpful, 114-118. 

Wilson, President, attitude towards 
China, 159-160. 



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